The Rolling Stones will not be performing in Israel this summer. Concert producer Shuki Weiss announced the news this weekend, to the dismay of thousands of fans who would have been happy to shell out hundreds of shekels to see the timeless rock band in concert. Just two months ago, fans received word that the Stones would be performing in Israel sometime in September.

Weiss is considered Israel's foremost producer of international concerts. Last year, he was faced with two major cancelations - that of British rock band Depeche Mode (who were supposed to appear in Hayarkon Park in August 2006 but canceled at the last minute), and that of Kelly Clarkson, "American Idol" winner. While the Depeche Mode cancelation was the result of the Second Lebanon War, which broke out just before the concert was meant to take place, other disappointments, like the Rolling Stones cancelation, seem to be the direct result of premature announcements.

It seems every local producer has in recent years attempted to jump on the bandwagon of international performances. However, it often happens that announcements of concerts are made but not seen through. Such was the case with the fairly unknown production company, Happy Course, which reported two months ago that it would be organizing a major music festival in late September in Hayarkon Park; the concert was said to feature Israeli rock stars Berry Sakharof and Assaf Amdurski, and bands the Yehudim, the Rapture, Placebo and Muse.

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Music fans were beside themselves with joy but their joy was shortlived - the festival, like many others before it, disappeared into thin air. A Happy Course spokesman said, "the festival has to be postponed for a number of reasons." Likewise, the announcement by one of Israel's leading Web sites two months ago, that rock band Madness would perform this summer with Israeli rock band Mashina, also simply evaporated.

Producers attribute the cancelations to a variety of problems and say the media are equally to blame.

"Producers are always trying to attract attention and win the interest of the public and of potential sponsors," says the producer Avisar Savir. "Many are later proven to have misled people." Savir was responsible this year for the performances in Israel of Keren Ann, Matisyahu and the Oy Va Voy band. But, he says, in addition to "the Jewish tendency to spout a lot of hot air," the media are out to beat their competitors by being the first to publish the scoop about the arrival of famous artists.

"I have also experienced the media reporting, without my approval, on contacts I was holding, and this merely harmed the chances of the negotiations [succeeding]. Almost every day, there is a case in which a reporter finds half a sentence on some band's Web forum or MySpace page and uses it to create a headline. It is not always a question of a director who is overly eager to publicize something, although that, too, happens."

Producer Dudu Zarjevsky, who specializes in world music and has arranged for Lauryn Hill to perform at the Amphi Park in Ra'anana in two weeks, says he prefers not to publicize performances until a contract is signed - despite the temptation to do so. "Every producer can choose what to say and what not to say," he says. "It is clear that even advanced negotiations have publicity value, but I think it is preferable to wait until a contract is signed." At the same time, he adds: "I believe that no producer publicizes a performance simply to advertise himself."

Zarjevsky notes Algerian singer Souad Massi's concert, which was supposed to take place last week as part of Tel Aviv's White Night festivities but was canceled: "We already had a signed contract with Massi, who is a popular artist in Israel and around the world, and I was itching to announce publicly that she was on her way to Tel Aviv. At the last minute, she canceled because of pressure from Arab countries." He says he experienced a similar incident in the late 1990s with Algerian singer Cheb Khaled. "Khaled received a large advance payment from us but canceled his performance at the last minute for the same reasons, just as we were about to begin the campaign," says Zarjevsky.

Just as in previous years, the busy summer schedule will likely reap heavy losses. A certain number of cancelations, such as Ricky Martin's last year, was due to poor ticket sales.

But even spectacular ticket sales are no guarantee the producers will earn big. "That is an optical illusion," says Savir. "The fact that there is a large audience does not necessarily mean the producer did not lose all but his shirt. No one really knows just how much it costs to bring the artist, how much it cost to rent the equipment and how much they pay for the location. At the same time, it is clear that, even in a case like this, it often pays for the producer to bring over the artist if only to make an impression."

"The million dollar question is who will win and who will lose," says Zarjevsky. "There is no doubt that most Israelis will not allow themselves to buy a ticket for more than one or two performances, but nevertheless the variety of performances is proof we have returned to a norm."

Savir says a large number of performances are scheduled for the summer, because this is the time of year when international artists are touring Europe. However, he says he'd prefer not to schedule international performances during the current "festival season."

"As summer was approaching, I reached the conclusion that it was preferable not to enter the jungle of performances taking place in the summer," he says, "because of the tremendous number of attractions, every event requires a vast investment in public relations and publicity and it is extremely difficult to compete for the public's attention. What do I need that for?