djfrosty

23 Feb 2023

Red Bull Dance Your Style Competition Releases 2023 U.S. Lineups

HipHopWired Featured Video

Red Bull Dance Your Style 2023

Red Bull Dance Your Style, the leading all-styles one-on-one dance competition, will launch its U.S. tour of battles beginning next month and through the spring season. The competition kicks off in Memphis ahead of a weekend showdown in Chicago.

Dance Your Style pits dancers of all disciplines, which include house, popping, breaking, Hip-Hop, house, and more, going against one another in a bracket-style competition in eight regions across the states. The regional qualifiers will produce winners that will face off against each other in the Red Bull Dance Your Style U.S. Finals.

Related Stories

Chicago will host the U.S. Finals for the first time this year at the Morton Salt Factory, which will feature 16 regional champions and runner-ups as they step up to the plate to grab the championship honors. Also this year, Dance Your Style pops up in three new cities: Baltimore, Denver, and Charlotte, and we’ll share the full slate of stops below.

March 25: Red Bull Dance Your Style Memphis

April 1: Red Bull Dance Your Style Los Angeles

April 8: Red Bull Dance Your Style Tampa

April 16: Red Bull Dance Your Style Boston

April 21: Red Bull Dance Your Style Baltimore

April 22: Red Bull Dance Your Style Denver

May 5: Red Bull Dance Your Style Oakland

May 6: Red Bull Dance Your Style Charlotte

May 18-29: Red Bull Dance Your Style USA Weekender in Chicago @ Morton Salt Factory

“Red Bull Dance Your Style is a space where you can witness amazing artistry from all over the globe. The dance community is filled with so many different voices and backgrounds, so it’s important to amplify all styles of dance that people might not be aware of, says The Crown, winner of the 2022 U.S. Red Bull Dance Your Style National Final, in a statement. “Each year, this competition offers an inside look at everything dance has to offer, and it’s an endless celebration of cultures entwining.”

To learn more about Red Bull Dance Your Style, please click here. Please CLICK HERE to purchase tickets.

—

Photo: Red Bull

23 Feb 2023

Viola Davis, Paul Simon, Billy Porter & More Nominated for 2023 Audie Awards

Less than three weeks after she won a Grammy for her audiobook Finding Me (and by doing so, clinching EGOT status), Viola Davis is nominated for two 2023 Audie Awards – audiobook of the year and narration by the author(s).

The Audie Awards, which are presented by The Audio Publishers Association, recognize distinction in audiobooks and spoken-word entertainment. This year’s finalists also include Paul Simon, Billy Porter, Kevin Hart, Lucy Liu, Thandiwe Newton, Malcolm Gladwell, Molly Shannon and BD Wong.

Finding Me was one of six projects to receive two nominations. Others are Coraline by Neil Gaiman; Good Omens by Gaiman & Terry Pratchett; Hello, Molly! by Shannon; The 1619 Project, created by Nikole Hannah-Jones and The New York Times Magazine; and War and Peace, narrated by Newton.

There are 26 competitive categories, including two that are gendered – best female narrator and best male narrator. Winners will be revealed at the Audie Awards Gala on March 28. The ceremony will be streamed from Chelsea Piers’ Pier Sixty in New York City.

“The Audio Publishers Association congratulates all of this year’s finalists,” Ana Maria Allessi, president of the APA, said in a statement. “This year’s finalists are representative of the immense talent in the audiobook community and beyond. From the recently crowned EGOT recipient Viola Davis to Grammy winner Paul Simon to audiobook luminaries like Soneela Nankani and Edoardo Ballerini, we’re proud of these multi-hyphenates who are helping shape the medium. We look forward to celebrating all of them at the March 28 gala.”

The Audio Publishers Association is a not-for-profit trade organization. Since 1986, the APA has worked to bring audio publishers together to increase interest in audiobooks. For more information about the APA, visit audiopub.org.

Here are nominees in four key categories:

Audiobook of the Year

The 1619 Project, created by Nikole Hannah-Jones and The New York Times Magazine; edited by Caitlin Roper, Ilena Silverman, and Jake Silverstein; various narrators; published by Penguin Random House Audio

Finding Me, written and narrated by Viola Davis; published by HarperAudio

Miracle and Wonder: Conversations with Paul Simon, by Malcolm Gladwell and Bruce Headlam; narrated by Paul Simon, Malcolm Gladwell, and Bruce Headlam; published by Pushkin Industries

Remarkably Bright Creatures, by Shelby Van Pelt; narrated by Marin Ireland and Michael Urie, published by HarperAudio

Wake: The Hidden History of Women-Led Slave Revolts, adapted by Tyler English-Beckwith, based on the graphic novel by Rebecca Hall and Hugo Martínez, various narrators; published by Podium Audio

Autobiography/Memoir

The Extraordinary Life of an Ordinary Man, by Paul Newman; edited by David Rosenthal; foreword by Melissa Newman; afterword by Clea Newman Soderlund; narrated by Jeff Daniels, Melissa Newman, Clea Newman Soderlund, Ari Fliakos, January LaVoy, John Rubinstein, and Emily Wachtel; published by Penguin Random House Audio

Hello, Molly!, written and narrated by Molly Shannon; published by HarperAudio

Left on Tenth, written and narrated by Delia Ephron; published by Hachette Audio

Safe, Wanted, and Loved: A Family Memoir of Mental Illness, Heartbreak, and Hope, by Patrick Dylan; narrated by Raúl E. Esparza; published by Snow Anselmo Press with Girl Friday Productions

Unprotected: A Memoir, written and narrated by Billy Porter, published by Recorded Books, a division of RBmedia

Humor

Happy-Go-Lucky, written and narrated by David Sedaris; published by Hachette Audio

Let’s Catch Up Soon, by Sarah Cooper; narrated by Sarah Cooper and Felip Jeremic, published by Audible Originals

The Office BFFs, written and narrated by Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey; published by HarperAudio

Who Do I Think I Am?, written and narrated by Anjelah Johnson-Reyes; published by Hachette Audio

The Wilder Widows, by Katherine Hastings; narrated by Pamela Dillman; published by Flyte Publishing

Narration by the Author(s)

Apparently There Were Complaints, written and narrated by Sharon Gless; published by Simon & Schuster Audio

Finding Me, written and narrated by Viola Davis; published by HarperAudio

Hello, Molly!, written and narrated by Molly Shannon; published by HarperAudio

Ten Steps to Nanette, written and narrated by Hannah Gadsby; published by Penguin Random House Audio

Waypoints, written and narrated by Sam Heughan; published by Hachette Audio

To learn more about the 2023 finalists visit https://www.audiofilemagazine.com/audies.

23 Feb 2023

Elton John Breaks & Extends Records Atop January Boxscore Report

Though the calendar year has flipped and Billboard’s January Boxscore report celebrates the beginning of a new year in touring, the top of the charts carry over what became a constant toward the end of 2022. According to figures reported to Billboard Boxscore, Elton John’s Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour earned $40.9 million during the month, securing his seventh at No. 1 on the Top Tours chart overall, and third in the last four months.

Beyond extending his record for time atop the ranking, notably, January’s Oceania leg of John’s sprawling farewell tour pushed the entire run’s gross to $817.9 million – making it the highest grossing tour of all time. It surpasses Ed Sheeran’s The Divide Tour ($776.4 million), which set the previous high mark in 2019, and U2’s The 360 Tour ($736.4 million), which had held the title since 2011.

Simultaneously, John leads the Top Boxscores chart with $11.3 million at Sydney’s Allianz Stadium on Jan. 17-18. Since the charts launched in February 2019, it’s the ninth time an artist has ruled both rankings, and the second for John, who first did so in January 2020. BTS is the only other act to double-up twice.

John’s $40-million January breaks down to two stadiums shows apiece in Newcastle (Jan. 9, 11), Melbourne (Jan. 14-15) and Sydney (Jan. 18-19), plus single shows in Brisbane (Jan. 22) and Christchurch (Jan. 25).

Boxscore

Not only does John crown the Boxscores ranking, he follows himself at Nos. 2 (Melbourne), 4 (Newcastle), 6 (Brisbane), and 11 (Christchurch). Blanketing the chart with four top 10 appearances, he set himself apart from the pack in stadiums during Australia and New Zealand’s summer, while the Northern winter kept last year’s holdovers dormant and 2023’s from beginning later into the spring.

The strategy does extend to the Red Hot Chili Peppers at No. 2 on Top Tours and at Nos. 5, 9 and 12 on Top Boxscores. The funk-pop-rock band earned $15.1 million from the first three of its Oceania shows, with five more to chart in February. This follows the $59.6 million in Europe and $117.4 million in North America last year, playing stadiums in both continents during the warmth of June through September.

With far less history in Oceania than on the Western hemisphere, the Chili Peppers enlisted Post Malone to join the January and February shows. The bulked-up billing helped transform the band from an arena act to a stadium act in the region, having last reported shows in Oceania on 2007’s Stadium Arcadium Tour. Audience in Auckland flipped from 22,000 in ’07 to 48,000 in 2023, while Brisbane’s crowd grew from 22,000 to 40,000.

Boxscore

Playing Brisbane’s Suncorp Stadium just a week after John, the two combined for $13.9 million and 91,000 tickets sold, enough to be the top grossing venue of the month worldwide.

On the Top Venues, 15,001+ capacity chart, Suncorp is followed by Sydney’s Allianz Stadium and Melbourne’s AAMI Park at Nos. 2-3, respectively, plus Manchester’s McDonald Jones Stadium at No. 6, forming a powerful Oceania block over western mainstays like the Kia Forum in Inglewood, Calif. (No. 4), the O2 Arena in London (No. 5) and Madison Square Garden in New York (No. 8).

Continuing the 2022 carryover at the head of Top Tours, Harry Styles is No. 3, after finishing at No. 4 on last year’s annual recap. He earned $12.4 million from 62,000 tickets sold, all from four arena dates. On Jan. 26-27 and 29, Styles played the final three dates of his 15-show mini-residency at the Kia Forum in Inglewood, Calif. Those dates grossed $9.6 million and pushed the entire Inglewood run to a gross of $47.8 million, making it the fifth-highest grossing headline engagement in Boxscore history.

Boxscore

Boxscore

Additionally, Styles played two shows at Acrisure Arena in Palm Desert, Calif. One of those shows, played on Jan. 31, counts toward his monthly total, and the other, played on Feb. 1, will count toward his February earnings.

While January typically is a lull between the final dates of major tours in November and December and the opening nights for the year’s biggest attractions in February and March, January 2023 proved that there are ways to kick off the year in style, pun intended. From John and the Chili Peppers going to Australia, to The 1975 and Future conducting brief, monthlong runs before calendars get too packed, January can be a sneaky time for sleeper ticket sales.

Further flagged by Omicron-era woes, the January 2021 Top Tours chart featured six tours above $5 million, 18 above $1 million, and cut off the 30-position ranking at $548,000. One year later, those numbers improve to eight, 28, and $975,000.

Boxscore

Boxscore

Boxscore

23 Feb 2023

TikTok Banned From EU Commission Phones Over Cybersecurity

The European Union’s executive branch said Thursday that it has temporarily banned TikTok from phones used by employees as a cybersecurity measure, reflecting widening worries from Western officials over the Chinese-owned video sharing app.

In a first for the European Commission, its Corporate Management Board suspended the use of TikTok on devices issued to staff or personal devices that staff use for work.

TikTok faces intensifying scrutiny from Europe and the U.S. over security and data privacy amid worries that the hugely popular app could be used to promote pro-Beijing views or sweep up users’ information. It comes as China and the West are locked in a wider tug of war over technology ranging from spy balloons to computer chips.

The EU’s action follows similar moves in the U.S., where more than half of the states and Congress have banned TikTok from official government devices.

“The reason why this decision has been taken is to … increase the commission’s cybersecurity,” commission spokesperson Sonya Gospodinova said at a press briefing in Brussels. “Also, the measure aims to protect the commission against cybersecurity threats and actions which may be exploited for cyberattacks against the corporate environment of the commission.”

Caroline Greer, TikTok’s Brussels-based public policy official, tweeted that the suspension “is misguided and based on fundamental misconceptions.”

“We have requested a meeting to set the record straight,” she said, adding that TikTok, which has 125 million users in the 27-nation European Union, is “continuing to enhance” its approach to data security. That includes opening three European data centers and minimizing data sent outside of the continent.

Commission spokespeople declined to say whether a specific incident triggered the suspension or what’s needed to get it lifted.

Staffers would be required to delete TikTok from devices that they use for professional business by March 15, EU representatives said, but did not provide any details on how that would be enforced for people who use personal phones for work.

In Norway, which is not a member of the 27-nation EU, the justice minister was forced to apologize this month for failing to disclose that she had installed TikTok on her government-issued phone.

TikTok also has come under pressure from the EU to comply with upcoming new digital regulations aimed at getting big online platforms to clean up toxic and illegal content along with the bloc’s strict data privacy rules.

23 Feb 2023

The Rolling Stones’ ‘GRRR Live!’ Makes Top 10 Debut on Album Sales Chart

The Rolling Stones’ new concert album, GRRR Live!, debuts at No. 7 on Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart (dated Feb. 25), marking the fifth consecutive year the band has placed a top 10-charting set on the tally.

Explore

Explore

See latest videos, charts and news

See latest videos, charts and news

The new live effort was recorded on Dec. 15, 2012, at the Prudential Center in Newark, NJ, as part of the group’s 50th anniversary trek, dubbed the 50 & Counting Tour. The show was originally broadcast live as a pay-per-view event titled One More Shot, but was not released in a home video or audio format until its GRRR Live! bow on Feb. 10. For its album release, the show was re-edited and remixed.

The GRRR Live! album features a robust lineup of guest stars in The Black Keys, Gary Clark Jr., Lady Gaga, John Mayer, Bruce Springsteen and former Stones guitarist Mick Taylor. The set was released in multiple configurations, including a 24-track digital album, a limited edition red-colored $80 three-vinyl-LP set, and variants that housed the concert on either blu-ray or DVD alongside two CDs.

Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart ranks the top-selling albums of the week based only on traditional album sales. The chart’s history dates back to May 25, 1991, the first week Billboard began tabulating charts with electronically monitored piece count information from SoundScan, now Luminate. Pure album sales were the sole measurement utilized by the Billboard 200 albums chart through the list dated Dec. 6, 2014, after which that chart switched to a methodology that blends album sales with track equivalent album units and streaming equivalent album units. For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both Twitter and Instagram.

Elsewhere on the new Top Album Sales chart, Paramore debuts atop the list with its latest studio album, This Is Why, launching with 47,000 copies sold. It’s the second leader for the band, which also led the tally with 2013’s self-titled set.

TOMORROW X TOGETHER’S The Name Chapter: TEMPTATION falls to No. 2 after spending its first two weeks at No. 1. It sold 28,000 in its third week, down 34%.

Pierce the Veil logs its highest charting effort yet on Top Album Sales as the rock band’s latest release The Jaws of Life starts at No. 3 with 18,000 sold. Taylor Swift’s former leader Midnights dips 3-4 with 17,000 (up 11%). Harry Styles’ chart-topping Harry’s House falls 4-5 with 9,000 sold (down 6%).

Rock band In Flames scores its first top 10 on Top Album Sales as Foregone bows at No. 6 with nearly 9,000 sold. It’s the ninth charting effort for the act, who had previously gone as high as No. 20 with I, the Mask in 2019.

Veteran alternative act Yo La Tengo hits the top 10 on Top Album Sales for the first time as This Stupid World bows at No. 8 with 6,000 sold. The band’s peak until the new chart was No. 26 in 2013 with Fade.

Closing out the top 10 of the new Top Album Sales chart are Tyler, the Creator’s former leader IGOR, rising 17-9 with just over 6,000 (after the set was reissued in physical formats) and Shania Twain’s Queen of Me falls 2-10 in its second week with 6,000 (down 82%).

In the week ending Feb. 16, there were 1.884 million albums sold in the U.S. (up 6% compared to the previous week). Of that sum, physical albums (CDs, vinyl LPs, cassettes, etc.) comprised 1.552 million (up 9.8%) and digital albums comprised 332,000 (down 8.7%).

There were 622,000 CD albums sold in the week ending Feb. 16 (up 2.7% week-over-week) and 919,000 vinyl albums sold (up 14.7%). Year-to-date CD album sales stand at 4.281 million (down 0.1% compared to the same time frame a year ago) and year-to-date vinyl album sales total 6.218 million (up 25.6%).

Overall year-to-date album sales total 12.922 million (up 6.3% compared to the same year-to-date time frame a year ago). Year-to-date physical album sales stand at 10.560 million (up 13.7%) and digital album sales total 2.361 million (down 17.7%).

23 Feb 2023

5 Questions With Premio Lo Nuestro Executive Producer Ulises Chang

When the 35th edition of Premio Lo Nuestro airs tonight (Feb. 23 at 7 p.m. ET) on the Univision network, some 1,300 people will be working under the baton of Ulises Chang, the network’s vp and executive producer for Live Event Tentpoles.

In the Univision-verse, the role includes purview over the network’s four music award shows: Premio Lo Nuestro, Premios Juventud, Latin Grammys and its most recent addition, the Latin AMAS. Among them, Lo Nuestro is not only the network’s highest-rated, but, according to Nielsen, it’s also been the “No. 1 program on all of television for the third consecutive year among adults 18-49 and adults 18-34,” with over six million viewers tuning in last year.

On set at the Miami-Dade arena, Chang is, as ever, preternaturally calm. He’s had this position since 2017, and if the tumult caused by four hosts, 21 musical numbers and nearly 30 artists (not to mention dancers and musicians) fazes him, he doesn’t let it show.

“Ulises has played an instrumental role in shaping the success of our live events and tentpoles. His passion and unwavering commitment to excellence are a reference in the industry,” says Ignacio Meyer, president of the Univision Television Networks Group.

Between rehearsals by the likes of Maluma, Ozuna, Ricardo Montaner, Ivy Queen, Sebastian Yatra, Grupo Firme and Tini, we managed to ask Chang five questions about tonight’s show:

1. How is this year’s show different from other years?

Every year is a challenge. Balancing budgets, venue, timing, artist relations, the amount of artists that are out there now. This show has such a long history and such prestige, people really want to be here. That’s one of the biggest challenges: Being able to somehow fit everybody which always is hard. But also, if people come to us early on with a pitch or a plan, we can say, maybe it’s not the right fit for this show, but we can work out a plan where it fits more organically somewhere else.

2. You oversee four music award shows. What is Premio Lo Nuestro?

This is tradition and celebration of music, of our music. Celebrating our history in this country, and what we’ve contributed musically. And the slogan this year is incredible: El mundo es lo nuestro (The world is ours). Because of where are we nowadays. Where did Bad Bunny take us a year ago when, for the first time a Hispanic artist wins [artist of the year] at the VMAs and gives his speech in Spanish and says I don’t have to change who I am. Going out on tour, who breaks the record for most tickets sold? Bad Bunny’s tour. We’re taking over in a way.

3. My understanding is this is your top-rated show. What do you attribute the high ratings to?

Yes, this is our highest rated show. The goals we’re given are higher than for any other, so, it’s a big responsibility. I don’t know if the ratings have to do with it being at the beginning of the year. Also, we take a lot of risks and we have a lot of freedom to do things in this show

4. What is the Ulises Chang imprint on a music show?

Overall, to be able to make people happy at home when theyr’e watching, and to be able to transport them to another place. Music is so beautiful. Music takes us to places we’re no longer at, it reminds us of our parents. When we had Roberto Carlos, for example, that tribute took me back to my youth. If it takes me, imagine people at home who don’t have the capability of experiencing this the way we do. We feel very fortunate and at the same time very powerful with what we are able to give.

5. It seems to me like you’re really creating a multi-generational show. Is that how you view it?

Yes. And that’s how we always prepare it. We think that people at home –that co-viewing with different generations– is what Univision is. It’s what Hispanics are. We still sit at home with our parents to watch especially these types of shows. These types of shows do do that; they do bring the multi-generational co-viewing. I don’t know if it happens in other networks, but in Univision, the research we’ve done indicates co-viewing is very present.

23 Feb 2023

For Rosalía, Producing Is a Path To Creative Control

When asked if she remembers her first forays into producing, Rosalía giggles. “Oh, my God. I always felt that I wasn’t good enough, so I would treat it more like a game,” she says, before quickly adding, “Still, I wanted to learn how to make a beat because when the time came that I needed to do it, I would be able to do it.”

What started as a “game” inevitably became a way for the 30-year-old Spanish star to gain creative control — something she doesn’t take for granted considering the lack of women in the field. “There’s [still] skepticism about a woman being able to be an artist, singer, producer and songwriter at the same time. To me, these disciplines are not mutually exclusive.”

Like her previous albums (Los Ángeles and El Mal Querer), Rosalía’s Grammy-winning Motomami, released in 2022, thrives on the intersection of those skills. The sonically groundbreaking set — which finds her boldly fusing jazz and reggaetón (“Saoko”), as well as sampling Soulja Boy in an otherwise traditional bolero (“Delirio de Grandeza”) — is an honest expression of the creative freedom she felt as she drew inspiration from the sounds and artists that have shaped her. During the sessions, she would sit in the studio for 15 hours or more, searching for the right sounds, arrangements and structures for each song. “My homework as a producer is to follow my intuition,” she says firmly. “It’s to make decisions and take risks.”

Following in the footsteps of the artist-producers she read about when she was younger, like Björk and Missy Elliott, Billboard’s first-ever Women in Music Producer of the Year hopes to motivate a new generation of innovators.

What led you to first take on this role in the studio?

My first desire was to be onstage and share something. Then I realized that I wanted to decide what I was going to sing. I also wanted to decide what I was going to say and how it would sound. I didn’t just want to be an interpreter. I wanted to write, and then I wanted to produce. The desire to create became bigger than the desire to just interpret.

Is Motomami the freest you’ve ever felt as a producer?

One hundred percent yes. I was always thinking: “How can I be freer?” Fear, or whatever the opposite of freedom is, is the biggest enemy for a creative. There was an urge to find the reason why I’m doing this. “What is the world all about? What is life about?” All those things matter, and it’s why I make music.

What’s Rosalía the producer like in the studio?

I try to not have a specific idea of how a song must sound. Instead, I go in with concepts, or ilusiones, of how I would like it to sound. But never a rigid idea. That’s not organic, nor is it productive. Producing also requires humility because you’re constantly testing out ideas. I remember Pharrell [Williams] once told me that we’re just testing ideas from the universe because no one really owns an idea. I love that concept.

You’ve been very vocal about the lack of representation of women producers. Why is that important to you?

If you don’t see yourself represented in a role like this, how can you picture yourself working in that position? I became a songwriter and producer because I cared way too much. I did research when I was younger of women who were producing, and it was hard to find them, but they taught me that this was possible. Björk, Delia Derbyshire, Kate Bush — they’ve done this, and we don’t talk about it enough. I know I’m not the only one because there’s a new generation of women producing like Caroline Polachek, PinkPantheress — there are literally so many. It would be great if more people knew about them outside of the industry.

This story will appear in the Feb. 25, 2023, issue of Billboard.

23 Feb 2023

Organizers of Failed Iowa Music Festival Headed to Prison After Admitting to Bank Fraud

Two former Iowa tourism officials were each sentenced to more than a year in prison after pleading guilty to bank fraud charges related to a failed 2018 music festival headlined by Maroon 5 and Kelly Clarkson.

Aaron McCreight, 48, was sentenced to 18 months, and Doug Hargrave, 56, was sentenced to 15 months over charges that they lied to a Cedar Rapids bank in order to finance Newbo Evolve, a three-day music and cultural event held in the city in August 2018.

Prosecutors said the pair – executives at a local promotional group called Go Cedar Rapids — submitted inflated data about the event’s underwhelming ticket sales and projected revenues, and that they lied to the bank that Newbo Evolve was expected to turn a small profit.

In reality, McCreight and Hargrave expected to lose more than $600,000, prosecutors said. The festival eventually lost more than $2 million, and was unable to repay most of the loan to the bank. 97 vendors that provided services to the festival lost a combined $800,000 unpaid fees.

The two men — former executives at a local promotional group called Go Cedar Rapids — each pleaded guilty last January to a single charge of bank fraud.

In addition to the prison time, McCreight and Hargrave were ordered to jointly repay a combined $1.4 million in restitution, and each will be subject to three years of supervised release after their prison terms are complete.

Newbo Evolve was held in Cedar Rapids from Aug. 3-5, 2018, featuring performances by Maroon 5, Kelly Clarkson, The Wallflowers, Robert DeLong and others.

According to court documents, McCreight, Hargrave and Go Cedar Rapids secured $1.5 million in initial funding from a local bank, telling the lender they expected to sell 11,000 tickets to each of the two headliners and 4,000 three-day passes to the entire festival.

But three months after tickets went on sale, McCreight reported internally that tickets were “not selling as originally budgeted.” By June, the group had sold just just 6,500 total tickets and was internally projecting a loss of $644,846 — with deadlines to pay the artists and vendors looming.

“As the Newbo Evolve event dates approached, GoCR did not have enough money to, among other things, pay Kelly Clarkson, pay production costs, and buy the alcohol that was to be sold at the concert venue,” prosecutors wrote. “Without additional funding, Newbo Evolve would have to be cancelled.”

Faced with that pressure, court documents show, McCreight and Hargrave committed bank fraud. Reporting that ticket sales had “spiked” in recent weeks, they falsely told the bank that 15,000 total tickets had been sold and that the event was forecast to turn a profit of $65,653. And the move worked: the bank eventually extended their line of credit to $2,200,000.

“Ultimately, Newbo Evolve lost more than $2 million,” prosecutors wrote in charging documents. “As a result, GoCR was unable to repay much of its loan from the lending bank when the loan was due.”

When he pleaded guilty last year, an attorney for McCreight told Billboard that he was a “good man” who made a “bad decision” under “extreme pressures.”

“His motive was not based in personal greed, but in an attempt to salvage the Newbo Evolve event for the Cedar Rapids community,” said attorney William White. “Had the event sold more tickets and been profitable, it is unlikely any prosecution would have ensued. However, that was not the case, and Mr. McCreight accepts his involvement in the lending bank losing money and is extremely remorseful.”

Attorneys for both McCreight and Hargrave were not immediately available for comment on the prison sentences.

Read the full judgments against McCreight and Hargrave here: