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Popular performance series From The Block has locked in a partnership deal with Sparta Distribution, the companies announced today (April 3). Since its 2021 inception, From The Block Performance has gained traction through viral performances from Cardi B, Offset, Chris Brown, Lil Yachty and 4 Batz, along the way accumulating over 200 million views. Sparta […]
Pophouse — the Swedish company that backed ABBA’s Voyage show in London and owns rights to music by Swedish House Mafia, Avicii and Cyndi Lauper — is acquiring KISS’ publishing, recording royalties and trademarks, including both the band’s logo and its iconic makeup design. The deal, announced April 4, will result in a Pophouse-produced KISS hologram show, using some of the same technology as ABBA’s Voyage.
“We have a lot of plans for KISS,” Pophouse CEO Per Sundin tells Billboard. Although Sundin says the company bought out the rights owned by frontmen Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley, they will work with the company to develop the show, which is expected to open in 2027 in a U.S. city that Sundin declined to name. “We want to keep to the legacy,” Sundin says. “We want to extend it and amplify it for new generations.”
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The band got interested in a possible deal when manager Doc McGhee saw Voyage “and he loved it and contacted us,” Sundin says. Over the course of the band’s End of the Road World Tour, the two sides met in Milan and Stockholm, thinking about what a hologram show could look like.
“We went to see the ABBA show and it blew our socks off,” Simmons tells Billboard. “And the technology since then has improved by leaps and bounds. We’ve seen sketches of what it will look like and we looked like the X-Men.”
Like dozens of other investors, Pophouse buys rights to songs and in some cases recordings or likenesses. But it tends to take a more active approach than most, with a focus on theatrical or immersive entertainment, rather than simply collecting royalties. In addition to the ABBA show, it runs the ABBA Museum and the Avicii Experience, both in Stockholm.
The idea of a hologram show seems ideal for KISS, whose concerts were always heavy on spectacle. “Everything is theater,” says Simmons. “We wanted bombast theater.”
Over the course of its career, KISS inspired the KISS Army, formed around an act that could have been described as the hottest brand in the land, with deals that included KISS Kondoms and a KISS Kasket. (Pantera guitarist Dimebag Darrell was buried in one that Simmons donated.) Now, after the End of the Road tour, “the end is actually the beginning,” Simmons says. “If you’re a caterpillar who can’t imagine what the future will look like, you think of the cocoon as the end, and it is the end of the caterpillar, but it can’t imagine sprouting wings and evolving into this beautiful creature that flies up to the heavens.”
Pophouse would not comment on the terms of the deal, which are presumably more complicated than a straightforward purchase of publishing rights. At this point, the band may be better known for its concerts than its songs. But the deal includes those, plus recording royalties. Pophouse also has a good relationship with UMG, which owns the band’s recordings, since Sundin was previously managing director of Universal Music Sweden and president of Universal Music Nordics. The band’s trademarks belonged to Simmons and Stanley, including the makeup designs for their characters: The Demon (Simmons), the Starchild (Stanley), the Spaceman (originally Ace Frehley, more recently Tommy Thayer) and the Catman (originally Peter Criss, more recently Eric Singer).
Jesús López, chairman/CEO of Universal Music Latin America and Iberian Peninsula, has received a special honor from the King and Queen of Spain. On Wednesday (April 3), the music executive received the Gold Medal for Merit in the Fine Arts — an award that recognizes individuals and entities who have “excelled” in the field of […]
Rod Wave was arrested on two counts of illegal possession of a weapon or ammo in Manatee County, Florida on Wednesday (April 3), according to arrest records viewed by Billboard.
The St. Petersburg Police Department hosted a press conference in the aftermath of the arrest alleging that Rod — born Rodarius Marcell Green — was connected to a gang-related shooting in Florida that left four bystanders injured outside of Sonic Sports Bar in St. Petersburg.
St. Petersburg Police Chief Mike Kovacsev explained that three of the apprehended assailants (Christopher Atkins, Keith Westby and Kevontre Wesby) are allegedly connected to the Young Gangsters gang and that two more are in the process of being arrested after law enforcement discovered 60 shell casings of ammo at the site of the shooting, which occurred on Sunday night (March 31).
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Kovacsev claimed that the getaway vehicle used in the shooting was registered to Rod and that the Palm Avenue residence the group fled to was also allegedly registered to the “Heart On Ice” singer.
“The vehicle they fled in was registered to [Green],” Kovacsev said. “They also fled back to a residence at 500 Palm Avenue North … That residence was rented by [Green] as well. We executed a search warrant at that location on Monday night and we recovered two assault rifles, two pounds of marijuana and a great deal of evidence we’re going to utilize the case going forward.”
Police determined that “another residence” was rented by Rod in Palm Meadow and shifted the focus to that location, where they executed a search warrant. Subjects leaving that residence were arrested on weapons charges by undercover detectives and the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office.
“We are hopeful and anticipate potentially other evidence to be taken out of the vehicles as we do search warrants over the next couple of days,” Kovacsev added. “We went and had the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office execute that warrant and we located a number of other assault rifles and a handgun inside that residence.”
The police chief said that along with the firearms, money and jewelry were also seized. More charges are also possibly looming related to the shooting and narcotics.
Rod’s weapon possession charges listed him as a convicted felon, which his attorney, Bradford Cohen, vehemently denies. Cohen also denies Wave’s connection to the shooting.
“[Rod] has nothing to do with a shooting,” Cohen tells Billboard. “There was nothing found in his car and he is not a convicted felon.”
Cohen and another of Rod’s attorneys, Mark Rankin, released a joint statement on Cohen’s Instagram claiming that the judge agreed that the evidence didn’t support the charges and that the Florida singer was set free on Wednesday.
“Rod was arrested and detained with absolutely no evidence of wrongdoing,” Cohen captioned the Instagram post featuring a photo of Rod. “The police claimed he was a felon in possession of ammunition. Not only was he not in possession of ammunition, a basic check of public records would have easily demonstrated to the police that he was not a convicted felon. The prosecutor and the judge immediately agreed that the evidence did not support the charge and set him free the same day.”
Rod was previously arrested in his hometown of St. Petersburg in May 2022 on a felony charge of battery by strangulation, which was dropped weeks later. That arrest stemmed from an April 2022 incident involving Wave and his ex-girlfriend, who alleged that the singer entered her home and choked her, according to the arrest warrant.
Billboard has reached out to the St. Petersburg Police Department for additional information.
This is a developing story.
Beginning in September 2022, Ron Poore and his Atlantic Records radio promotions team emailed and called alternative-rock program directors for months to convince them to add Paramore‘s new single, “This Is Why,” to playlists. Their efforts paid off: The song hit No. 1 on the Alternative Airplay chart in February 2023. “You work that record for weeks and weeks and weeks, and all of a sudden it starts showing up in the research,” says Poore, then Atlantic’s senior vp of promotion, alternative and rock and a 21-year veteran of breaking radio hits by Death Cab for Cutie, Coldplay, Portugal. The Man and others.
“This Is Why” is an example of a classic record label promo story: an experienced major-label staff working radio connections to achieve chart success. But it didn’t end well for Poore. In February, Atlantic laid off Poore as part of an industry-wide downsizing that hit promo teams especially hard.
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“Five years ago, 10 years ago, it’s radio, radio, radio,” Poore says. “And now it’s the last thing we do at these labels.”
Layoffs at two of the top labels, Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group, began in February, affecting dozens of employees, many in traditional media positions such as publicity, marketing and radio. (Sources say similar cuts affected Sony Music Entertainment as well.) The layoffs have had little to do with the companies’ financial health: Universal earned $12 billion in revenue and $1.3 billion in net profit last year, and Warner said it is coming off its best quarter ever. But top executives from both labels announced they were adapting to a long-running industry shift towards new technology.
In a late February statement announcing layoffs of roughly two dozen staffers, Julie Greenwald, chairman/CEO of Warner-owned Atlantic Music Group, said, “The changes we’re making today are primarily happening in our radio and video teams.” And Lucian Grainge, Universal’s chairman/CEO, told staffers in January, before the latest layoffs, that the label would be “not just expanding geographically and leveraging new technologies” but “further evolve our organizational structure to create efficiencies in other areas of the business.”
From a practical standpoint, according to Diane Monk Harrison, a radio manager at Warner-owned distribution company WEA, who lost her job in mid-March, that meant the industry layoffs have been “disproportionately affecting radio promotion.” The broadcast business is shrinking: The biggest radio company, iHeartMedia, has been downsizing since the pandemic, including a recent wave in the last few weeks. That means fewer programmers exist for major labels to lobby for extra playlist adds. “Radio is still extremely important,” says Skip Bishop, a former longtime promotion executive at Sony and other labels who has been a consultant for more than a decade. “But it’s just an evolution. You don’t need six regionals, three nationals, two vps and an svp [at a label] when 20 to 45 people are making the decisions that 200 people used to make at radio.”
Adds a major-label source: “In the old world, you might have radio-promo people who were earning the same, or more, as the head of A&R. That’s not going to happen in the new world, for obvious reasons. What is happening is the labels are keeping the absolute very best radio people.”
As listeners have shifted away from old-school radio stations in favor of on-demand streaming, the radio business has declined: According to Nielsen Media Research data, weekly listenership dropped during the pandemic, from 89% of adult Americans in 2019 to 82% in 2022. The medium’s most resilient advertising area is in digital sales, a recent Radio Advertising Bureau and Borrell Associates study shows, and not in AM-FM airplay. “The only portion of radio that’s growing is not dependent on music,” says Gordon Borrell, CEO of Borrell Associates, an analyst group that focuses on media advertising and marketing. “I don’t think the record labels are daft of what has happened to the industry in terms of listeners, and they’re well aware of the aging nature of terrestrial radio programming.”
iHeartMedia has more than $5.2 billion in debt and has been laying off personnel over the last few years, including a wave of reported layoffs in early 2024. (Audacy, another broadcast giant, filed for bankruptcy in January, owing $2 billion in debt.) As the number of radio employees decreases, major label staff who attempt to influence them have made proportionate changes. “It makes sense to shrink your radio promotion when there’s less radio people to deal with,” says Don Cristi, a veteran radio programmer recently laid off as iHeartMedia’s senior vp of programming in Tulsa and Oklahoma City. “I dealt with way more ‘nationals’ in the last few years [from labels] than what used to be called your regional guy.”
And many independent artists are going around both labels and radio entirely, having “already done the heavy lifting” to break on TikTok and other social media, according to an indie R&B and hip-hop music executive. “Nothing will ever go back to the way it was just five years ago,” this person says. “A label may shift from promo field execs to mobile digital execs, just as radio is now relying on its digital real estate to generate additional revenue.”
Still, the radio business has shown resilience: 82% of U.S. listeners is no small number, and a recent Chartmetric study shows radio maintains a powerful ability to break hits. Stations aired 7.4 million songs roughly 102.4 times apiece, for a total of 755 million spins, in 2023, and the top 10 radio songs earned major streaming boosts. And while rock, pop and hip-hop artists have become less reliant on radio in recent years, some genres, including Latin and country, remain attached to radio. “Music companies continue to be very important strategic partners with the entire radio industry and there are no signs that is abating,” says Wendy Goldberg, iHeartMedia’s spokesperson, in a statement. “Labels rely on broadcast radio to break new artists, because in order to introduce new music to the masses, you need radio and its unparalleled reach.”
At many labels and artist management companies, radio and streaming teams are working in tandem, befitting the hit-breaking relevance of both media. “As for now, they’re both very valuable,” says Bob McLynn of Crush Music, which manages Miley Cyrus, Green Day, Fall Out Boy, Sia and others and employs radio and label veterans on its promo staff. “You could argue [radio] is not what it was 15 years ago. When you got a hit on radio, that was the all-being. Sometimes you used to lead with radio, and now radio comes later.”
Robust radio promotion departments have been expensive for labels to maintain: It costs money to send employees from New York, Los Angeles or Nashville to build relationships with programmers throughout the U.S. Still, these departments are where labels keep “boots on the ground,” as Monk Harrison calls them: employees with an understanding of how fans in Omaha or Detroit discover artists, attend shows and follow local entertainment from concerts to sports. “Relationships are still key and no algorithm can replace that,” says David Linton, a former executive at Capitol, Island and Arista who is a program director with jazz station WCLK in Atlanta.
Ed Brennan, who was Atlantic’s vp of alternative promotion until he lost his job in late February, plans to use these kinds of relationships to build his own company, White Leather Projects, potentially focusing on artist management, tour marketing and radio promotion. In the meantime, he’s concentrating on more important issues. “The first thing I did when I got the phone call that my position was to be eliminated, I volunteered to chaperone my son’s field trip at school. He’s 8,” Brennan says. “I’m excited about the unknown future.”
Additional reporting by Gail Mitchell.
Joey Ramone‘s brother is fighting back against a lawsuit filed by Johnny Ramone’s widow over a planned Netflix movie about the pioneering punk band, calling the case “baseless and flimsy” and filing his own countersuit against her.
Johnny’s wife (Linda Cummings-Ramone) sued Joey’s brother (Mitchel Hyman, better known as Mickey Leigh) in January over allegations that he had “covertly” developed an “unauthorized” biopic, believed to be Netflix’s announced moving starring Pete Davidson as Joey. In the lawsuit, Linda said that any “authoritative story of the Ramones” would require her sign-off.
But in a sharply-worded response filed last month, Mickey’s attorneys argued that Linda had, in fact, already greenlit such a movie many years ago – and that her “baseless” lawsuit was simply one more step in a years-long plan to “install herself as the Queen of the Ramones.”
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“Ms. Cummings-Ramone’s main purpose is to embarrass, harass, and destroy the integrity of Mr. Hyman, create an utterly false narrative about him, rewrite her role in the history of the Ramones, and win a popularity contest in which, in her mind, she takes over … the legacy of a band of which she never was a member and had nothing to do with creatively,” Mickey’s lawyers wrote in the March 15 filing.
A representative for Linda did not immediately return a request for comment on Wednesday.
Joey (real name Jeffrey Ross Hyman) and Johnny (real name John William Cummings) were not actually brothers, and they had a notoriously chilly relationship during their decades as bandmates. In the years since the two passed away, that feud has seemingly continued between Mickey and Linda.
As the executors of Joey and Johnny’s respective estates, Mickey and Linda each own half of Ramones Productions Inc., the holding company that controls the band’s music and other assets. But that partnership has not gone smoothly, featuring multiple lawsuits and arbitrations over the past decade.
The latest legal scuffle was triggered in part by the plans for a movie version of I Slept With Joey Ramone, Mickey’s 2009 memoir, which Netflix announced in April 2021. In her January lawsuit, Linda said that such a project would need the sign-off of Ramones Productions and not just Joey’s estate.
“Ms. Ramone objects to defendants’ attempt to create a Ramones film without her involvement — not to be obstinate, but rather based on defendants’ disregard for [Ramones] assets and their conduct and treatment of Ms. Ramone and her late husband,” Linda’s attorneys wrote at the time. “To permit defendants alone to tell the authoritative story of the Ramones would be an injustice to the band and its legacy.”
But in his recent response, Mickey argued that the planned movie is about him and his brother, and is “not intended to be a ‘Ramones movie’ or a Ramones biopic.” And he pointed to a 2006 agreement in which he argued that Linda had already granted her approval to a film based on the I Slept With Joey Ramone book: “Ms. Cummings-Ramone did consent to Defendants’ development and production of a motion picture,” Mickey’s lawyers wrote.
In a copy of the alleged agreement filed in court, Ramones Productions granted approval to a company called Rosegarten Films to produce a movie based on the then-unpublished memoir. It’s unclear if that specific company is involved in the currently-planned film, but television and film producer Rory Rosegarten was listed an executive producer when Netflix announced the movie in 2021.
In a statement to Billboard on Wednesday, Mickey echoed his argument that the movie was not going to be about the Ramones as a band.
“The fact is, I did not write ‘I Slept With Joey Ramone: A Punk Rock Family Memoir’ about my brother’s band and had no intention whatsoever of doing that,” he said. “I wrote a story about growing up with a big brother who endured a severe somatic malady at birth, and later developed neurogenic problems. That led to doctors making diagnoses that he would never be able to function on his own in society — and that big brother, with support from his family, proved those doctors wrong as he went on to do great things with his life and become an inspiration to millions.”
The recent court filings came as part of Mickey’s so-called answer to the Linda’s lawsuit, denying the many accusations leveled against him in her lawsuit. Along with it, he filed his own counterclaims against her, arguing that it was Linda who had actually breached their partnership agreement with a “pattern of egregious conduct.”
The counterclaims set the stage for potentially years of litigation over Linda and Mickey’s back-and-forth accusations. Just like Linda’s original lawsuit, Mickey’s new case covers a wide range of alleged wrongdoing in their joint management of the Ramones assets well beyond just the proposed movie.
“She is driven by an alternate agenda, including her own fame and vanity, as well as a self-serving desire to obstruct projects and control RPI for reasons which conflict with her fiduciary duties and cause her to avoid any modicum of cooperation with Mr. Hyman,” Mickey’s lawyers wrote.
KAI Media, a company that focuses on physical K-pop music and fan events in brick-and-mortar locations, raised $3 million from existing investor CRIT Ventures to fund expansion beyond its Los Angeles base. The company, which operates under the name hello82, had previously raised $5 million from CRIT Ventures, Kakao Entertainment, Snow Corp. and other investors. […]
Spotify will increase prices in five markets later this month and do the same in the U.S. later this year, Bloomberg reports. Spotify previously raised the price of premium individual plan by $1 in North and South America, Europe, and Asia last year.
The initial round of new price hikes — $1 a month for individuals, $2 a month for duos and families — will hit the U.K., Australia, and Pakistan, among others, according to Bloomberg.
A rep for Spotify declined to comment.
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In recent years, music rightsholders have regularly been calling for streaming services to raise prices. Appearing at a Morgan Stanley conference last year, Warner Music Group Robert Kyncl noted that the price of individual streaming subscription plans continued to lag behind inflation.
“We are the lowest (cost) form of entertainment,” Kyncl said of music. “We have the highest …engagement, highest form of affinity and lowest per hour price. That doesn’t seem right. It should change in an orderly fashion.”
Last year, Barclays estimated that a 10% price increase by all music subscription services would increase Universal Music Group’s revenue by $430 million and Warner Music Group’s revenue by $256 million.
Spotify moved to raise prices — $10.99 a month for individuals, $16.99 a month for families — in July of 2023. “The market landscape has continued to evolve since we launched,” the company wrote in a blog post. “So that we can keep innovating, we are changing our Premium prices across a number of markets around the world. These updates will help us continue to deliver value to fans and artists on our platform.”
Bloomberg also reported on Wednesday (April 3) that Spotify plans to introduce a new payment tier: $11 a month for individuals who only want access to music and podcasts. Those users will have to pay separately for audiobooks.
Spotify turned a profit in the third quarter of 2023, its first in a year. The company posted an operating loss of €75 million (around $80 million) in the fourth quarter. It now boasts more than 600 million users.
Spotify’s stock price is up about 5.5% ($284) in morning trading, following a brief spike of as much as 7.4%.
YG has agreed to a multi-album partnership deal with BMG under his 4Hunnid record label, it was announced today (April 3). “BMG is making big waves in the industry right now,” YG tells Billboard. “This partnership will take my music to new heights. The BMG team understands the vision for my music and business. Excited for […]
Making live music events as environmentally friendly as possible is a task executed by thousands of workers who install solar panels, transport waste, collect reusable cups, measure energy use and execute other operational tasks. But every employee doing this work ultimately falls under the purview of any given live event company’s head of sustainability. Erik Distler is one of them.
As vp of sustainability at AEG, Distler leads the company’s corporate sustainability program. There are executives in similar roles at Live Nation, ASM Global and Oak View Group – and together, this group is responsible for greening a significant percentage of global events and venues. In February, the group – who Distler says all know each other given that the sustainability space is relatively small — appeared together in public for the first time during a panel at the inaugural Music Sustainability Summit in Los Angeles.
“The symbolism of us being together on that stage is powerful and hopefully inspiring to the industry that we’re cheering each other on and perhaps exploring what we can do together,” says Distler. With the stakes being so high, there’s an incentive to share information, he says, particularly given that “this work is really replicable. What you do in one venue or festival can, barring local infrastructure, be done anywhere else.”
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Distler came to his role after working in sports and entertainment sustainability for more than a decade. At AEG, he and his five-person team design and direct sustainability initiatives across the company’s more than 25 festivals, as well as over 50 music venues; nine arenas and similarly sized venues; four entertainment districts; and more than 15 tours to date.
AEG has had a sustainability program for 15 years, but when Distler joined in October 2021, his task was to “take our program to its next phase” amid the worsening climate crisis, the increasing demand for sustainable events among consumers, and new sustainable technologies and regulations.
“The external forces are louder and more influential than they’ve ever been,” he says. “That’s really pushing the industry forward in a way that’s making the case for companies to prioritize and devote internal teams to understand this work, build resources and take action in a meaningful way.”
Distler spent his first three months on the job meeting with 50 internal stakeholders to better understand the business, how to make it more sustainable and get senior executive buy-in, which he says “was fundamental and really paved the way to get more granular with other colleagues.”
From the information collected, he created a strategic framework around sustainability, along with an official vision statement — “Inspire the world’s many voices to protect our planet” — and a mission statement declaring that the company is “committed to operating responsibly and to catalyzing the influence of live entertainment to preserve the planet for future generations.”
“It’s important to have a strategy on a page,” Distler says, “and ultimately a framework that can be used to guide us moving forward.”
This framework also includes a set of focus areas including carbon and energy, waste and materials water, and stewardship and engagement, along with six guiding principles (“collaboration over competition” and “communicate with transparency and often” among them) and seven pillars: operations, suppliers, employees, fans, communities and partnerships.
These partners include Schneider Electric, a French multinational energy management company that AEG has worked with for 14 years for support with target setting, strategy, energy sourcing, market intelligence and risk management. A Greener Future in the U.K. and Three Squares Inc. in the United States are sustainability consultants, while r.World provides reusable cups in all of AEG’s Denver music venues, along with select venues in Seattle, San Francisco and Los Angeles, along with six Goldenvoice festivals. For Coachella and Stagecoach, AEG has donated 44.2 tons of food to its partner Coachella Valley Rescue Mission and 34.6 tons of material to the Galilee Center, which provides clothing and other basics to families in the Coachella Valley.
Distler has also sought additional help. Last year, he worked to get four people hired into three newly created sustainability roles. “It’s not uncommon that a sustainability team is small in count and under resourced,” he says. “ What I see as a large part of my responsibility is ensuring our department is sound economically and building and making the case for staff and resources.”
In addition to Distler and his new hires, the team also includes a data and analytics lead responsible for measuring the impact of AEG events and “all the other people that have jobs like those in festival operations that eat, sleep and breathe this.” Additionally, AEG’s employee-led People For The Planet group is composed of employees from other parts of the company who want to contribute to sustainability projects.
Altogether, this group is “probably pretty emblematic of a sustainability department,” Distler says. “You may have a small core team, but you’ve got external and internal partners that help get the work done.”
Given that Europe has tighter sustainability regulations that the U.S., the industry there offers good examples of initiatives that might eventually be adopted in the States. Last November, AEG’s O2 Arena in London launched a green rider: a best practice guide for sustainable touring and events that outlines what the venue is doing in key areas.
“It’s a great way to sit with an artist and their management team and figure out what we can do while they’re [at the O2] that’s truly sustainable and ultimately communicated to fans,” Distler says of the guide, which was produced in collaboration with U.K. based sustainability consultancy A Greener Future.
Distler says his team is “constantly” collaborating with artists including Billie Eilish, who in June 2022 hosted an event at The O2 called Overheated that featured vegan food and water refill stations along with climate-minded programming. Last April, after learning that rock band Muse “was passionate about climate issues,” he says, AEG’s Crypto.com Arena made a donation on behalf of the and to the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator, which works to further clean tech, climate action and the green economy in the city.
Distler on site at Cali Vibes
Courtesy of AEG
AEG made a donation to the L.A. Clean Tech Incubator, which works to further clean technology in the city, from AEG’s Crypto.com Arena on behalf of the band. Last year, the team also worked with Maggie Rogers to measure the carbon footprint associated with one of her U.S. tour stops and provided that info to Rogers’ team, along with mitigation suggestions.
In the U.S., AEG has launched a comprehensive sustainability program for its Goldenvoice festivals — including Coachella, Stagecoach, Cruel World and Just Like Heaven. In particular, Goldenvoice’s Cali Vibes functions as a testing ground for sustainability initiatives, including solar panels that light parking lots and the transformation of unpurchased merch into staff uniforms, with these projects be studied for possible use at other events.
“I always say that sustainability doesn’t happen within our team,” says Distler. “Things like waste avoidance or diversion at a festival happen in collaboration with our operation teams, partners and haulers. That requires work that doesn’t ultimately get done in the corporate office.”
While the music industry is ultimately responsible for a tiny fraction of global emissions and waste, Distler is resolute about its impact. He recalls being on a panel in New York last fall alongside sustainability heads from major corporations with, he says, “huge footprints, like millions of metric tons of emissions.”
And yet when it came to the audience Q&A, “everybody had questions for me, and no one had questions for them.” Given its “influence [on] the heart and mind,” the music industry has a responsibility to focus on sustainability, share these initiatives with fans and “create the setting for positive, inspiring and uplifting work.”
It helps that Distler “absolutely” sees real progress being made, with fans, partners, artists and athletes “putting the right level of pressure on the businesses to take on meaningful action.” He says many of the major corporations AEG works with are also taking on sustainability in a more focused way.
“It’s sitting down with partners and saying, ‘What are your focus areas? Your goals? Your aspirations?’” he says. “Then sharing ours and seeing what lines up…seeing the eagerness and willingness of our partners to ideate and brainstorm is really encouraging, and is signaling that the industry is moving in the right direction.”