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The Houston Police Department released its final report on the 2021 crowd crush tragedy at Travis Scott‘s Astroworld festival on Friday (July 28). The more than 1,200-page document details the Houston PD’s investigation into the tragedy, which left 10 people dead and hundreds more physically injured. The report arrives just a month after a Houston […]
It’s been a rough week for venue management firm ASM Global. On Thursday, OVG signed a contract to privately manage one of ASM’s largest clients, Chicago’s McCormick Place, the largest convention center in North America, and then on Friday (July 28) OVG won the venue management and food service contract for Tulsa’s BOK Center and the 275,000-square-feet Cox Business Convention Center.
The BOK Center had been managed by ASM and formerly its predecessor SMG since the building opened in 2007 and was a crown jewel for the company, regularly landing a spot on Billboard’s Boxscore Chart for building capacities of 15,0001 seats or more. But during a special meeting Friday, the Tulsa Public Facilities Authority unanimously voted to begin exclusive negotiations with OVG360 and OVG Hospitality to manage venue operations, booking, partnerships and sponsorships, and food and beverage operations at the two venues.
“OVG will focus on creating momentum in three main areas: ensuring Tulsa is the top destination for major concerts in Oklahoma, continuing to grow the city’s national and regional convention business, and assisting the city and its stakeholders in the development of a full-service convention center hotel,” company officials announced in a press release.
“The BOK Center and Convention Center are key economic drivers in our community, and their success is critical to Tulsa’s future vitality,” Tulsa Mayor G.T. Bynum said. “As a thriving world-class city with world-class entertainment venues, we must always be focused on continuous improvement – not self-satisfied with the success of today but focused on being even better tomorrow. I have complete confidence in OVG and their ability to build upon the success we’ve enjoyed at the BOK Center and Convention Center over the last fifteen years.”
In Chicago, an unanimous vote from the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority (MPEA) Board Thursday awarded the contract for private management and food services on the McCormick Place campus to OVG360 and OVG Hospitality.
The contracts, scheduled to begin on Oct. 1, 2023 and run through September 2028, were unanimously awarded following an extensive public procurement process. The change will affect the McCormick Place Convention Center, the 10,00-seat Wintrust Arena, and Arie Crown Theater.
“We’re incredibly proud that McCormick Place has entrusted OVG360 and OVG Hospitality as the new keepers of this world-renowned complex. While McCormick Place has set the industry standard for decades, we are honored to help shape its future,” said Chris Granger, president of OVG360. “We see an incredible opportunity to elevate the guest experience, support the surrounding community, drive sustainability, and grow and inspire a diverse workforce. We look forward to bringing our depth of experience from around the globe to Chicago and to building upon McCormick Place’s incredible track record.”
Dennis Murcia was excited to get an email from Disney, but the thrill was short-lived. As an A&R and global development executive for the label Codiscos — founded in 1950, Murcia likens it to “Motown of Latin America” — part of his job revolves around finding new listeners for a catalog of older songs. Disney reached out in 2020 hoping to use Juan Carlos Coronel’s zippy recording of “Colombia Tierra Querida,” written by Lucho Bermudez, in the trailer for an upcoming film titled Encanto. The problem was: The movie company wanted the instrumental version of the track, and Codiscos didn’t have one.
“I had to scramble,” Murcia recalls. A friend recommended that he try AudioShake, a company that uses artificial intelligence-powered technology to dissect songs into their component parts, known as stems. Murcia was hesitant — “removing vocals is not new, but it was never ideal; they always came out with a little air.” He needed to try something, though, and it turned out that AudioShake was able to create an instrumental version of “Colombia Tierra Querida” that met Disney’s standards, allowing the track to appear in the trailer.
“It was a really important synch placement” for us, Murcia says. He calls quality stem-separation technology “one of the best uses of AI I’ve seen,” capable of opening “a whole new profit center” for Codiscos.
Catalog owners and estate administrators are increasingly interested in tapping into this technology, which allows them to cut and slice music in new ways for remixing, sampling or placements in commercials and advertisements. Often “you can’t rely on your original listeners to carry you into the future,” says Jessica Powell, co-founder and CEO of Audioshake. “You have to think creatively about how to reintroduce that music.”
Outside of the more specialized world of estates and catalogs, stem-separation is also being used widely by workaday musicians. Moises is another company that offers the technology; on some days, the platform’s users stem-separate 1 million different songs. “We have musicians all across the globe using it for practice purposes” — isolating guitar parts in songs to learn them better, or removing drums from a track to play along — says Geraldo Ramos, Moises’ co-founder and CEO.
While the ability to create missing stems has been around for at least a decade, the tech has been advancing especially rapidly since 2019 — when Deezer released Spleeter, which offered up “already trained state of the art models for performing various flavors of separation” — and 2020, when Meta released its own model called Demucs. Those “really opened the field and inspired a lot of people to build experiences based on stem separation, or even to work on it themselves,” Powell says. (She notes that AudioShake’s research was under way well before those releases.)
As a result, stem separation has “become super accessible,” according to Matt Henninger, Moises’ vp of sales and business development. “It might have been buried in Pro Tools five years ago, but now everyone can get their hands on it.”
Where does artificial intelligence come in? Generative AI refers to programs that ingest reams of data and find patterns they can use to generate new datasets of a similar type. (Popular examples include DALL-E, which does this with images, and ChatGPT, which does it with text.) Stem separation tech finds the patterns corresponding to the different instruments in songs so that they can be isolated and removed from the whole.
“We basically train a model to recognize the frequencies and everything that’s related to a drum, to a bass, to vocals, both individually and how they relate to each other in a mix,” Ramos explains. Done at scale, with many thousands of tracks licensed from independent artists, the model eventually gets good enough to pull apart the constituent parts of a song it’s never seen before.
A lot of recordings are missing those building blocks. They could be older tracks that were cut in mono, meaning that individual parts were never tracked separately when the song was recorded. Or the original multi-track recordings could have been lost or damaged in storage.
Even in the modern world, it’s possible for stems to disappear in hard-drive crashes or other technical mishaps. The opportunity to create high-quality stems for recordings “where multi-track recordings aren’t available effectively unlocks content that is frozen in time,” says Steven Ames Brown, who administers Nina Simone‘s estate, among others.
Arron Saxe of Kinfolk Management, which includes the Otis Redding Estate, believes stem-separation can enhance the appeal of the soul great’s catalog for sample-based producers. “We have 280 songs, give or take, that Otis Redding wrote that sit in a pot,” he says. “How do you increase the value of each one of those? If doing that is pulling out a 1-second snare drum from one of those songs to sample, that’s great.” And it’s an appealing alternative to well-worn legacy marketing techniques, which Saxe jokes are “just box sets and new track listings of old songs.”
Harnessing the tech is only “half the battle,” though. “The second part is a harder job,” Saxe says. “Do you know how to get the music to a big-name producer?” Murcia has been actively pitching electronic artists, hoping to pique their interest in sampling stems from Codiscos.
It can be similarly challenging to get the attention of a brand or music supervisor working in film and TV. But again, stem separation “allows editors to interact with or customize the music a lot more for a trailer in a way that is not usually possible with this kind of catalog material,” says Garret Morris, owner of Blackwatch Dominion, a full-service music publishing, licensing and rights management company that oversees a catalog extending from blues to boogie to Miami bass.
Simpler than finding ways to open catalogs up to samplers is retooling old audio for the latest listening formats. Simone’s estate used stem-separation technology to create a spatial audio mix of her album Little Girl Blue as this style of listening continues to grow in popularity. (The number of Amazon Music tracks mixed in immersive-audio has jumped over 400% since 2019, for example.)
Powell expects that the need for this adaptation will continue to grow. “If you buy into the vision presented by Apple, Facebook, and others, we will be interacting in increasingly immersive environments in the future,” she adds. “And audio that is surrounding us, just like it does in the real world, is a core component to have a realistic immersive experience.”
Brown says the spatial audio re-do of Simone’s album resulted in “an incremental increase in quality, and that can be enough to entice a brand new group of listeners.” “Most recording artists are not wealthy,” he continues. “Things that you can do to their catalogs so that the music can be fresh again, used in commercials and used in soundtracks of movies or TV shows, gives them something that makes a difference in their lives.”
Eric Prydz is making moves. The Swedish producer is now represented globally by WME. The news marks Prydz’s departure from North American representation with CAA, where he signed in 2021. Prydz continues to be managed by Michael Sershall at London’s Sershall Management. Prydz’s team also includes global press by Infamous PR. Prydz is among a WME […]
So-called “super listeners” make up an average of 2% of all artist’s listeners, but account for 18% of all streams for the artist — a figure that can grow to 30% of all streams for the biggest artists in the world, according to a new study released by Spotify For Artists.
That’s the headline takeaway from a new report by the leading digital service provider, which focuses on how an artist’s most dedicated fans drive streaming activity and engagement on the platform. For the study — which tracked listening behavior during several different periods across the first half of the year — Spotify broke down percentages for artists based on their monthly listeners, identifying how small segments of an artist’s fan base contribute higher percentages of streams than the majority of listeners. The company doesn’t explicitly lay out how it defines a “super listener,” other than to say that it is “your most dedicated active listeners in the past 28 days” who “are also the most likely to keep streaming your music.”
While the 18% figure is an overall average, super listeners tend to drive the highest percentage of streams for the biggest and the smallest artists, the company found. For artists with 0-10,000 monthly listeners, 1% of super listeners drove 22% of all monthly streams; for artists with 25 million or more monthly listeners, 5% of those fans drove 30% of all monthly streams. Artists with between 5 million and 25 million monthly listeners also scored highly, with 3% of super listeners driving 20% of all monthly streams, while those with between 1 million and 5 million saw 2% of listeners drive 16% of streams. Both the 10,000-100,000 range and the 100,000 to 1 million range saw 1% of listeners drive 13% of streams.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, those super listeners are also much more likely to purchase artist merch through Spotify, too. For artists with more than 10,000 monthly listeners, 2% of their super listeners accounted for 52% of all merch purchases, while the remaining 98% of listeners made up the remaining 48% of merch sales. And there is a top 10 market breakdown for where those super listeners come from, too: four of the top 10 markets are in Latin America (Chile at No. 1; Mexico at No. 2; Argentina at No. 6; and Colombia at No. 7) and three are in Asia (Hong Kong at No. 4; Japan at No. 8; the Philippines at No. 10). The remaining are Canada (No. 3), the United States (No. 5) and Poland (No. 9).
Other statistics in the report: new releases can boost the number of listeners to super-status by almost 20%, while retention of those fans appears to be high, with more than 2/3s of those new superfans still listening six months later. Check out the full report here.
The study comes amid an industry-wide conversation about streaming royalties, how exactly they should be allocated and whether a mechanism should exist to reward artists with dedicated fan bases, and how that should be implemented. But super fans are boosting artists in other ways in addition to streaming numbers — CD, cassette and vinyl sales are all up this year so far, according to Luminate’s mid-year report, which it attributes to superfans, with 15% of the U.S. population spending 80% more than the average fan in a given month.
More than nine years after members of the 1960s rock band The Turtles filed a series of groundbreaking lawsuits over the legal protections for so-called pre-1972 sound recordings, a federal judge has now dismissed their final case — a lawsuit against Pandora that he called the band’s “last case standing.”
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In a decision issued Wednesday, Judge Philip Gutierrez ruled that the Sirius XM-owned Pandora had not violated California state law by streaming the band’s songs, like the iconic 1967 cut “Happy Together,” without permission and without paying sound recording royalties.
In doing so, the judge recounted the decade-long story of how the two founders of the Turtles (legally Flo & Eddie, Inc.) filed such cases against music services in courts around the country — and how they had lost in every one of them.
“This case is one of many lawsuits brought by Flo & Eddie, seeking to hold internet and satellite radio services liable for the unauthorized public performance and reproduction of its sound recordings that were fixed prior to February 15, 1972,” the judge wrote. “Flo & Eddie’s action against Pandora is the last case standing.”
The Turtles first sued SiriusXM and Pandora in 2014, claiming that both companies had been illegally refusing to paying royalties for pre-1972 songs. That was a legal gray area at the time, since songs prior to that year had not been covered by federal sound recording copyrights. But the Turtles claimed pre-1972s could still be covered by state-level laws aimed at preventing misappropriation.
Initially, the band won a key ruling in California federal court, finding that California state law contained a so-called public performance right that would require services like Sirius and Pandora to start paying up. But then, slowly but surely, courts around the country — first the top court in New York, then the Florida Supreme Court, then a federal appeals court in California — ruled no such right existed.
“One after another, federal circuit courts and state Supreme Courts answered with a resounding ‘no’,” Judge Gutierrez wrote in Wednesday’s ruling.
In some ways, Wednesday’s ruling is anti-climactic. The larger issues raised by the Turtle’s pioneering lawsuits — whether the owners of a vast swath of American recorded music were entitled to a new revenue stream from services like SiriusXM and Pandora — were largely rendered moot by the passage of the federal Music Modernization Act in 2018. Among other major changes, that law required such royalties to be paid for pre-1972 records, ending the state-level ambiguity that drove the Turtles to sue.
But Judge Gutierrez had previously ruled that the MMA’s new requirements did not apply to pending lawsuits, meaning that the band still could have won a ruling forcing Pandora to hand over unpaid royalties from the years before the MMA’s enactment.
Barring a successful appeal, Wednesday’s ruling foreclosed that possibility: “The court grants Pandora’s motion for summary judgment. This order closes the case.”
In seeking to revive their lawsuit against Pandora, the Turtles argued that, even if no public performance right existed under California state law, the streamer had still violated their so-called reproduction right by illegally copying their music to make it available on the service. But those “repackaged” claims had also been rejected by the other courts, Judge Gutierrez wrote.
“Even if the Court would like to independently consider these claims, its ‘hands are tied,’” the judge wrote. “In the absence of an exclusive right to publicly perform its pre-1972 sound recordings, Flo & Eddie has no viable copyright claim against Pandora.”
Music strategy and supervision company Premier Music Group has acquired the music supervision services of George Drakoulias, a longtime music supervisor who has worked on films and TV series including Joker, The Batman, Marriage Story and, most recently, the smash hit Barbie.
At Premier, Drakoulis joins the leadership team as a partner and creative director and will open the company’s new West Coast offices this summer. He’ll be tasked with expanding Premier’s music supervision team and the company’s West Coast footprint while striking new creative opportunities and partnerships.
Over the course of his career, Drakoulis has held executive A&R roles at Def Jam — where he worked with LL Cool J and The Beastie Boys — and (Def) American Recordings, where he signed and produced albums for The Black Crowes, The Jayhawks and The Freewheelers. He has also produced albums for Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Maria McKee, Primal Scream and Susan Tedeschi, as well as tracks for Wu-Tang Clan.
“George is a legend in our business, and I’ve admired his impeccable creative and commercial instincts for years,” said Premier Music Group CEO Josh Deutsch in a statement. “His body of production and supervision work, exceptional artistry and deep relationships in music and entertainment make him the ideal partner at this key point in Premier’s growth.”
Premier Music Group creative director Randall Poster added, “George and I have been working together for years. He loves movies and music as much as anyone I know, and brings that passion into every operation and project he takes on. George has produced some of my favorite records, the first two Black Crowes albums, the Jayhawks, many more. He’s been anchoring our West Coast operation for years and I couldn’t be more excited to have him join us in a more substantial way.”
“I couldn’t be happier to be joining the Premier Music team,” said Drakoulis. “Randy and I have been running around together, working on movies and record projects for forever. He has been the most exquisite guide into the world of music supervision. I’ve come to rely on the support of the Premier team, Meghan Currier, Winslow Bright, Milena Erke, and Ian Herbert for years, since they were interns actually, and love and respect them all.”
AWAL named Norva Denton as senior vice president/head of urban music. In his new role, he’ll bolster and develop the label’s urban music roster via strategic signings and an artist development-focused mindset. Based in Los Angeles, Denton will join the company’s A&R team, reporting to president Pete Giberga. Before AWAL, Denton served as senior vp of A&R at Warner Records, where he signed, developed and spearheaded the careers of artists such as YFN Lucci, Wale, Taykeith, Chika and 2KBABY. – Griselda Flores
Negla Abdela was promoted to MD at Sony Music UK’s Ministry of Sound. She was previously GM and has been responsible for managing the marketing and digital teams. Abdela joined the label in 2015 as a social media manager and was promoted to head of digital in 2018.
Diana Sanders was appointed senior vp of business affairs at Prescription Songs and label counterpart Amigo Records. Prior to joining the companies, she served as a partner at Russ August & Kabat and co-chaired the firm’s music practice group. Sanders has been named to Billboard‘s Women in Music and Top Music Lawyers lists multiple times.
Christopher Mauberqué was named head of international A&R at independent digital distributor IDOL, where he’ll be tasked with continuing to drive the company’s business development in territories outside Europe. He previously served as senior label manager at !K7 Music and as A&R and label manager for French independent distributor La Baleine (now known as Bigwax). Mauberqué can be reached at christophe.mauberque@idol.io.
Gerardo Martinez and Sven Bogner announced their partnership in a new heavy metal record label, Reigning Phoenix Music. Martinez, who was a longtime GM at Nuclear Blast America, has been instrumental in the careers of such artists as Dimmu Borgir, Carcass and Hypocrisy. Bogner, an avionics and tech entrepreneur, is a “self-professed metalhead and musician,” according to a press release. The label is headquartered in Los Angeles and Hamburg, Germany. “Our collective blueprint for RPM is to help hard, extreme, and heavy metal music thrive globally,” said Martinez in a statement. Artist signing announcements are forthcoming.
Luis Mesa was appointed director of marketing at Bichota Records, Karol G’s newly-announced imprint. The Colombian executive will focus on creating and executing strategies and day-to-day promotion for Karol G’s musical releases through the label. Before joining the Bichota Records team, Mesa had been SoundOn’s (TikTok’s distribution platform) marketing manager U.S. Latin and, previously, label manager and artist strategy at Universal Music Latino. He will be based out of the company’s Miami headquarters. – Griselda Flores
Artist manager Max Gredinger was named partner at Foundations Artist Management, joining company founder/partner Steve Bursky as well as partners Brian Winton and Drew Simmons. Gredinger has been with Foundations since 2012; his current clients include Laufey, mxmtoon, Ricky Montgomery and rainbolt. He can be reached at max@foundationsmgmt.com.
Discogs promoted four employees to executive leadership positions: Anbu Ilangovane to vp of engineering, Jeffrey Smith to vp of marketing, Jen Agosta to brand director and Richard Gleeson to director of people operations.
Mike Rogers was named vp of business development at blockchain-based ticketing platform DeFy Tickets, which is powered by NFT ticketing provider GET Protocol. Rogers has worked in the ticketing business for nearly 20 years, most recently serving as GM of partnerships at Dice FM. In his new role, he will oversee DeFy’s growth strategy while securing new partnerships with venues, promoters, festivals and conferences in North America. Rogers can be reached at Mike@DefyTickets.com.
Provident Entertainment’s publishing division, Essential Music Publishing, promoted Jamie Rodgers to the role of vp. Rodgers was previously Essential Music’s senior creative director and has been with the company since 2017. Prior to her work with Essential Music Publishing, Rodgers served as manager of national promotions and commercial partnerships for Capitol Christian Music Group. – Jessica Nicholson
John Bowditch was promoted to senior director of marketing at Seeker Music, where he has worked since 2021. In his new role, he will oversee all marketing activity across the company’s catalog and frontline businesses. He can be reached at John@seekermusic.com.
Deron Johnston was appointed chief program officer at BRIC, the Brooklyn-based arts and media institution. In his new role, Johnston will lead the integration of BRIC’s platforms and programming while also overseeing the creative direction of its media and non-media programming, including BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn!, BRIC JazzFest and Contemporary Art. He was previously director of community development, strategy & innovation at the Center for Justice Innovation.
Grayson Clotfelter was named creative manager at Play It Again Music Group, where he will oversee the creative direction of the company’s roster of songwriters. He previously worked as a catalog manager at Universal Music Publishing Nashville and has also toured with acts including Seaforth and Lily Rose. Clotfelter can be reached at grayson@piamusic.com.
Hyperion Records has entered the streaming age.
From today (July 28), the venerated British classical label begins the rollout of its catalog on streaming platforms, starting with a batch of 200 titles.
The initial run includes “key recordings” from Hyperion’s roster, including Arcangelo, Mahan Esfahani, Marc-André Hamelin, Angela Hewitt, Sir Stephen Hough, Alina Ibragimova, Steven Isserlis, Steven Osborne and Polyphony.
All 2,000-plus LPs from the Hyperion vault will be available to stream by spring 2024, reads a statement. Collections should follow every two weeks from Sept. 15, 2023, until the complete set is ingested and available across the myriad platforms.
The long-overdue streaming push follows Universal Music Group (UMG) acquisition of the label, in a deal announced in March which sees Hyperion join Decca Classics and Deutsche Grammophon in UMG’s classical portfolio.
Also from today, three new Hyperion releases are made available for streaming, including the latest Dvořák album from the Takács Quartet; and a collection of choral anthems from Stephen Layton and Trinity College Choir Cambridge.
Going forward, all new Hyperion titles will be simultaneously available for streaming, physical purchase and download, explains the statement from UMG.
The 43-year-old label — which is home to artists like Marc-André Hamelin, Angela Hewitt and Stephen Osborne, and some works which date back to the 12th century — was founded in South London by Ted Perry, a classical enthusiast who moonlighted as a mini-cab driver to fund its early recordings.
“These first 200 albums tell our story, and we look forward to presenting all our work from the past four decades to a new global streaming audience artist-by-artist, series-by-series,” comments Simon Perry, managing director of Hyperion and son of the label’s founder. “Each had their challenges and now they come together to tell a narrative, hopefully a powerful one, of what can happen when you make space for musicians to thrive: it’s why Hyperion has worked.”
The second release phase will “showcase some of Hyperion’s great piano and keyboard stars” including pianists Danny Driver, Stephen Hough, Pavel Kolesnikov, Steven Osborne, and harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani.
Subsequent “release chapters” will feature choral music, string quartets, Baroque, early music and solo vocal, and more.
The acquisition came as the classical music world emerged as a hive of activity. Last November, Deutsche Grammophon launched a new standalone streaming service, Stage+, catering to its own catalog and that of Decca Classics. And earlier this year, Apple Music launched its own standalone streaming app, Apple Music Classical, which stems from its August 2021 acquisition of Primephonic.
“The arrival of Hyperion on the world’s streaming platforms,” comments Dickon Stainer, UMG’s president of global classics & jazz, “offers a special moment of discovery for this precious and pioneering label.”
Irvine, Calif. officials are considering going the way of the Greek Theatre, pausing negotiations with Live Nation for the development of a 14,000-capacity amphitheater at the city’s Great Park to consider a plan to go it alone and develop and manage a scaled-down 8,000-capacity amphitheater with city resources.
The decision surprised many during a special Irvine city council meeting on Tuesday night (July 25), when the Orange County city’s leaders were asked to approve a contract between the city and Live Nation for the development of a $130 million amphitheater to replace the non-permanent Live Nation-operated Five Points Amphitheater. Five Points opened in 2017 and was created to serve as a temporary replacement for Irvine Meadows Amphitheater, which operated from 1981 to 2016 on property that has since been converted to apartment buildings.
Live Nation had agreed to contribute $20 million to $30 million in capital costs toward the new amphitheater project and to operate the venue as an open amphitheater available to other promoters bringing shows to the region. In total, the amphitheater project would generate a projected $5 million per year for the city and run for a term of 25 years with two renewal options for 10 years each.
While several council members described the project as a good deal for the city, Irvine residents weren’t totally on board, with many complaining of possible traffic impacts as well as concerns about noise emanating from the venue. Other speakers, including John Hanna with the Southwest Mountain States Regional Council of Carpenters, said the project would bring both jobs and world-class talent to Orange County.
“We feel this is a good project. We think the City Manager has done a good job in terms of negotiations,” Hanna said, noting that the project fits with the original vision of the Great Park, “which was created to accommodate not just city members, but the entire region and this venue will do that.”
Irvine vice mayor Tammy Kim said she believed city officials needed more time to evaluate Live Nation’s proposal, which she said felt rushed through. “I think it’s important that we don’t come across as doing any backroom deals — we’re not Anaheim,” Kim said, throwing shade at the city’s neighbor, which has long been accused of having a cozy relationship with Disney.
A number of high-profile Live Nation executives were on hand to voice their support for the project, including Geni Lincoln, the company’s president of California, who said the new amphitheater would be home to “the most exciting events” and “the most diverse events” and would be open to all promoters looking to bring shows to the building.
After a four-hour meeting with more than 30 public comments, the council voted 3-2 to delay a vote on the project so that the city manager could explore a self-management strategy, which would see the city developing and building the venue itself while managing the bookings calendar between competing promoters.
Later in the meeting, city officials instructed the Irvine city manager’s office to pursue the self-management model, potentially mimicking a plan adopted by the city of Los Angeles, which ended Nederlander Concerts’ exclusive contract for the Greek Theatre in 2015. In Denver, the Red Rocks Amphitheatre has long been managed by the city and even allows visiting promoters to choose their own ticketing system.
While the self-management model at the Greek Theater — with ASM Global hired to serve as a third-party neutral manager — has netted more annual income for Los Angeles, it’s come at the expense of more than $50 million in deferred maintenance at the venue, including important earthquake retrofits.
From 1981 to 2016, Irvine Meadows hosted acts including Michael Jackson on his 1989 Bad tour, the Eagles and the Grateful Dead, who played a total of 15 shows there. Built by private investors and operated by Avalon Attractions, the amphitheater eventually landed in the hands of Live Nation in the late 1990s and served as an important Orange County stopover for bands traveling between Shoreline Amphitheater in Northern California and amphitheaters in San Diego County.
While Irvine Meadows was popular for touring amphitheater shows, the new venue would be hard-pressed to repeat the established success of the Greek Theatre, known for its historic design and location inside one of Los Angeles’ most popular park destinations. Without Live Nation, the top amphitheater promoter in the country, city officials managing the facility could face challenges bringing concerts there given Southern California’s competitive live entertainment market.
Live Nation Entertainment continued to profit from the red-hot live music market in the second quarter, beating earnings expectations with $5.6 billion in revenue — up 27.1% year over year and coming in a whopping $680 million over expectations. The company generated earnings per share of $1.02, which was $.40 higher than expected.
The financial results, which marked Live Nation’s strongest second quarter ever, also saw the company’s operating income rise 21% year over year to $386 million this quarter, while adjusted operating income was up 23% to $590 million and operating cash flow came in at $491 million, a 41% increase. The earnings report continues an upward trend at the company, indicating that 2023 will again set a revenue record for the concert promotion giant.
“We believe this is a time on a global basis when live will see incredible growth for years to come,” Live Nation chief executive Michael Rapino said on an earnings call after the company’s financial results were released Thursday (July 27).
The report noted that a record number of fans have attended Live Nation concerts this year, with 117 million tickets sold year-to-date for Live Nation shows — an increase of 20% year-over-year. Ticketmaster clients reported sales of 151 million fee-bearing tickets sold so far this year, with Ticketmaster on track to sell 300 million fee-bearing tickets in 2023. The company also reported a double-digit increase in sponsorship revenue and $4.3 billion in event-related deferred revenue, up 37% over last year, while double-digit attendance growth is expected next quarter.
In terms of venue size, stadiums saw the most growth, with attendance up 28% to 8.0 million fans, led by Europe and Asia Pacific. Arenas saw the second-highest growth rate, up 19% to 10.7 million fans, largely from Canada, Asia Pacific and Latin America. Finally, festivals grew 14% to 4.5 million fans, driven by global demand across all markets.
Capital expenditures at Live Nation totaled $158 million year-to-date, driven by investments in on-site venue enhancement and the expansion of the company’s venue portfolio. The 2023 capital expenditures forecast remains at $450 million, two-thirds of which is allocated for revenue-generating projects.
Despite the rosy earnings report, shares were slightly down Thursday after close to $96.93, marking a drop of less than 1%.
Below is a summary of 2023 Q2 results:
Total revenue: $5.6 billion, up 27% from 2022 Q2
Adjusted operating income: $168.1 million, up 37% from 2022 Q2
Concert revenue: $4.6 billion, up 29% from 2022 Q2
Ticketing revenue: $709.3 million, up 23% from 2022 Q2
Sponsorship and advertising: $302.9 million, up 15% from 2022 Q2
North American concerts: 8,111, up .67% from 2022 Q2
International concerts: 4,130, down 8% from 2022 Q2
North American fans: 18.5 million, up 6% from 2022 Q2
International fans: 18.6 million, up 13% from 2022 Q2
Fee-bearing tickets: 78.9 million, up 10% from 2022 Q2