Following performances to huge crowds this summer, Jamie Webster has confirmed major dates in the UK later this year as well as shows in Australia.
The singer-songwriter from Liverpool played to 40,000 fans at his own outdoor hometown show in Sefton Park. He also performed on The Other Stage at Glastonbury.
Webster’s label boss, Modern Sky UK CEO David Pichilingi, put those ticket sales down to “fan power”.
“It’s about the way we've engaged his fanbase,” he said. “He writes great songs. He’s now doing 10,000 tickets in Glasgow, so he's consistent. These tours consistently sell out right across the country. So he's not a one trick pony in terms of the UK market.”
Webster’s upcoming show at Glasgow OVO Hydro Arena (November 29) will be the climax to a run of dates in the UK and Ireland. He also plays dates in Germany, France, Belgium and the Netherlands.
At the end of the year, the singer-songwriter heads to Australia for further shows.
“That will be his first time out there,” said Pichilingi. “We'll continue to look at other markets like America – we've got a hugely ambitious artist.”
Webster peaked at No.2 earlier this year with third studio album 10 For The People – his best result yet. The LP has 20,420 sales for date, according to the Official Charts Company.
Moments, his 2022 album (No.3 peak), has amassed 36,730 sales to date, while 2021 debut We Get By (No.6 peak) is on 51,657 units.
Modern Sky is supported through its partnership with Virgin Music.
We'll continue to look at other markets like America – we've got a hugely ambitious artist
David Pichilingi
“Jamie is one of those artists who works on all levels,” said Pichilingi. “He's strong on physical sales, he does unbelievable [amounts of] tickets, but his streaming numbers are also very good and they're building all the time. That’s one of the areas we’re concentrating on – how do we grab that audience [on DSPs]? So we’re looking at collaborative things, there are plans to work with other artists, and plans for remixes of some of his biggest tracks like Weekend In Paradise to galvanise streaming.”
Significantly, We Get By’s streaming makes up 72.9% of overall consumption. For Moments, the streaming proportion is 65.4%, which suggests that Webster has a consistent listenership via DSPs, including nearly half a million monthly listeners on Spotify.
“When it comes to album campaigns, I think we’re probably one of the best in the game at driving D2C for the chart week,” said Pichilingi. “But beyond that, we do have strategies that take us beyond the chart week as well. So not only are we having consecutive chart albums with the artists that we're working with, a lot of the artists also go silver and gold with their albums because they're getting the legacy sales as well. And then we’re also making sure that we build it for the long term through the streaming side of what they do.”
As well as providing a range of physical options for fans, Modern Sky utilises the Openstage platform to drive engagement.
“We started adopting that platform in the early stages, and began to move all of those passive fans from social media and get them engaged onto Openstage,” said Pichilingi. “That has allowed us to really understand at the granular level what type of fans we have with each of the acts that we work with. That's been hugely effective for us, particularly with artists like Jamie Webster and The Coral, who had a relatively huge database that they just hadn't serviced for a long time. By taking it over onto Openstage, tha was when we could bring new life into that and begin to really understand who their fan base are.”
Pichilingi also acknowledged Modern Sky’s role in the revival of guitar music.
“We are song-led rather than genre-led but I do think we've played our part in that, particularly for Northern acts,” he said. “We’ve had the success of [management client] The Lathums and Jamie Webster, and the resurgence of artists like The Coral and Mick Head. They’re great stories and I'm very proud that we've played our part in them.”
PHOTO: John Johnson
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