The company which owns Australia’s currently shelved Stereosonic festival has risen from the ashes of bankruptcy with a brand new, well, brand.
Electronic music giant SFX Entertainment has chucked a Chet Faker, changing its name to LiveStyle and appointing a new big kahuna.
Former AEG Live head Randy Phillips has been named President and CEO, after leading the embattled company through the murky waters of Chapter 11 bankruptcy like a valiant sea captain, reportedly bailing them out of hundreds of millions of dollars of debt through some savvy structural and asset-related swashbuckling.
Stereosonic was canned in 2016 after SFX filed for bankruptcy, with the festival’s founder Frank Cotella reckoning the event’s parent company’s financial mess was the direct cause of the hiatus (and the hearts of thousands of bros snapping like glow sticks).
But it seems promises of the EDM fest returning “bigger and better” in 2017 may not be too far off the mark, with LiveStyle’s new top dog promising great things on the horizon.
“We have no plans to sell anything,” Phillips tells Billboard of the company’s next move. “Now is the time to clean this up, make it function, and grow it.”
Speaking about the company’s new nominal facelift, he adds, “Every time I said the name ‘SFX’ to someone, I got this negative reaction — people would make the sign of the cross.”
Despite the fact that most of SFX’s festivals — bar Stereo — are still thriving, the company itself has something of a bad rep. As Billboard points out, they were known for buying up electronic promoters at “stratospheric prices” and folding them into a company that reportedly received a valuation of more than USD$1 billion when it went public in October 2013. Following its collapse just two and a half years later, SFX had a market value of less than USD$10 million.
But it seems a savvy rebrand may be just what the doctor ordered, with Phillips planning to establish LiveStyle as more than just an EDM company (and he apparently actually hates the term “EDM”).
“We’re going to be a music company that specializes in electronic music,” he says.
Aussie Stereo fans will no doubt be on the edge of their ab machine seats to find out what this means for the future of their MIA EDM fest.
Music Feeds has contacted LiveStyle for comment.
Watch: Stereosonic 2015 Official Aftermovie
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wI–VAZ9zLk