Business

Last April on a cool night in Dubrovnik, Croatia, Mumford & Sons played to a packed ballroom not far from the Mediterranean. It was the band’s first time performing in the country, but only those who got the invite knew the concert was even happening: The show was a private event put on for employees of a major tech company, which also footed the bill. 
Corporate performances like these occupy a small but flourishing niche of the live events industry, with companies of all sizes lining up to book current superstars, legacy acts and emerging artists to play their conferences, retreats, holiday parties and more. These shows come with paydays ranging from merch trades to millions of dollars, with most big-name artists rarely receiving less than $50,000 per show. There can also be strings attached, as artists who play these shows work within corporate structures where expectations can be different from the standard festival appearance.

“I’ve been involved with a Snoop Dogg private show before and the client was like, ‘He can’t smoke weed,’” says corporate event producer and talent buyer Elana Leaf. “It was like, ‘He’s going to smoke weed. That’s just the way it is.’”

Trending on Billboard

This past year has been a strong one for corporate events, with this area of the industry not only finally back in full swing following the pandemic but reaching new heights. Beyoncé set a new precedent for these types of performances in January 2023 when she reportedly received $24 million to play the opening of a luxury resort in Dubai. This past July, the wedding of the son of Indian tech billionaire Mukesh Ambani, which made headlines for its opulence, included a performance by Rihanna. Sources with knowledge of this sector say that upon seeing these big performances and paychecks, more artists have been requesting to play corporate shows. 

Based in Los Angeles, Leaf has been producing corporate concerts for events for nearly 15 years, working with companies ranging from family offices to international conglomerates to the city of Miami Beach. Regardless of size, though, the process of finding the right artist for each event is the same. 

“To start, you have to have a dialogue with the client about who’s coming to the event,” says Leaf. “Age is important, economic level is important. Before you start suggesting artists, you’ve got to know who they’ll be playing for.”  

Once the guest list is hashed out, Leaf and her client create a list of artists they think will fit the desired vibe. Leaf once produced a Super Bowl party for a media company at a private residence in Malibu, so it made perfect sense when she and the client booked The Beach Boys to sing “Surfin’ Safari” and other beachy hits while the crowd gazed out at the Pacific.   

But the client isn’t necessarily always after a huge star. “A lot of companies come to us and ask if we can activate their entire conference, convention or event,” says Channing Moreland, co-founder of the app EVA, which registers emerging artists (along with speakers, celebrities and more) and corporate clients in search of entertainment and uses technology to match them for events. “Maybe there’s a place to have that closing night headlining show, but we also see [local and emerging artists playing] registration areas, general sessions, interactive experiences. There are so many opportunities to engage.” 

Of course, not all artists are inclined to play corporate shows. “Some might think it’s selling out, or some might think they’re not going to be taken care of in the same way on-site at a private show as they would be by a promoter,” says Leaf. As such, she says good professional relationships and enticing, often creative offers are even more important in this area of the industry, as agents must be able to assure their client that the gig will be comfortable, worthwhile and valuable (or at the very least neutral) to their brand. (Most of the big talent agencies have departments focused solely on private shows like these.) 

Naturally, money is a crucial part of the conversation, although the rate a company can offer isn’t always related to its size. “The good agents know that even though I’m coming in with a major tech company, that doesn’t necessarily equate to having the dollars,” says Leaf. “Sometimes smaller companies that really want to move the needle for their brand profile will come in with bigger cash offers, along with really creative ways to sweeten the pot.” 

“Sweetening the pot” may involve flying the artist and their entourage to the show on the company’s private jet, or providing luxury accommodations and other perks. Sometimes an artist is simply eager to travel to an exotic destination where they might not otherwise tour. Or a company might make a donation to an artist’s charity of choice — an especially attractive option for corporations that can use this as a charitable giving tax write-off.  

For one corporate client, Leaf was able to get their artist of choice involved by offering the artist the opportunity for their newly launched liquor brand to be the featured liquor at the event itself. “That’s what got them through the door,” she says.  

But no matter the size of the artist, getting the gig (and the paycheck) can also involve agreeing to unusual requests. These can include morality clauses in which an artist must agree to omit curse words that may be in their lyrics. “You sometimes have to tell the artist they need to perform radio edits, which can be a challenging conversation,” says Leaf, who also recalls certain clients asking for approval of what an artist wears onstage. (Though “as a buyer, I will not push that,” she says. “Artists need to be artists, and what they wear is part of their art.”) 

However, rising artists who are often more eager for exposure and a cash infusion may be more amenable to such requests. 

“We know that you can’t just have someone get up on stage and start asking for tips, or cussing, or going through the buffet line,” says EVA co-founder Makenzie Stokel. “You need people that know this isn’t their party, but they’re going to make five or 10 times more than what they’d make at a bar gig.”

For Moody Jones, who DJs corporate events around the world and is also GM of dance music at EMPIRE, these gigs often have completely different goals than his regular club sets. “Your role is to get people’s heads nodding, and that’s as much as it goes,” he says. At a recent event he played for YouTube, “The mandate was, ‘We need an artist who doesn’t need the spotlight on them,’” he recalls. “It was a team-building event, so the last thing they wanted was for people to only be paying attention to the music. No one should be Shazam-ing anything.”    

For most artists — and certainly the biggest ones — all the details about what they will and will not do are hashed out in the contract. “With the big agencies, once you’re contracted, the creative and business terms are set in stone not only to protect the artist but so there’s no ambiguity with my client,” says Leaf. Thus, every element — from what a company wants an artist to say (or not say) while onstage to whether or not they’ll take photos with execs in front of the company logo, to backstage meet and greets and providing signed merchandise — is determined ahead of time.

Leaf says these discussions often focus on if and how an artist will interact with a company’s product, whether that’s a cell phone, branded decor clothing item or other object. “It’s not always easy or appropriate-feeling to ask the artist to pick up a mobile device and carry it around,” says Leaf. “You have to work with the production company and the brand to figure out ways to seamlessly integrate the product. A lot of times you have agents and managers who are like, ‘They’re absolutely not going to touch the product.’” But given the rise of influencers, Leaf says brands have gotten “significantly more strategic” with devising product interactions that feel natural.  

Generally, a company doesn’t ask for sign-off on an artist’s setlist, although negotiations can be more nuanced when dealing with legacy acts. “People want to hear the hits,” says Leaf. “They don’t necessarily want to hear new music, but sometimes it’s hard to say they can’t play new stuff they’re working on.” She says in situations like these, it’s necessary to have conversations with the client and artist to settle on a mix of music everyone feels good about.  

Generally, say Stokel and Moreland of EVA, there’s been an uptick in corporate show requests following the pandemic as “companies are wanting more unique in-person engagements for people to really connect… Companies are asking, ‘How can we get them up and moving? How can we have a hit songwriter tell a story that feels like a keynote and is tied to music and drives emotion?” They say the return on investment on events is higher for companies when they offer more engaging programming.

After connecting over their love of live music as students at Nashville’s Belmont University, Moreland and Stokel created EVA to cater to rising artists. They found that companies often wanted local talent to make events feel authentic but didn’t know where to look. And the artists they knew were interested in making money from corporate gigs to help them pay for studio time, touring and life expenses.  

They launched the app in 2019, quickly booking corporate events for ESPN, BMW and Arby’s. EVA has since grown to 10 employees and launched in Nashville, Austin, Dallas, Chicago, Atlanta, New Orleans, Charlotte and New York. Notably, the company provides artists with the backend requirements necessary to play a corporate show. “These entertainers don’t carry $5 million in insurance, and to work with Amazon you have to have a certain level of COI,” says Moreland. “There has to be tax management, invoicing, payment processing, contracting and it has to be done at a certain level. That’s really what we unlocked.” 

For some artists, the appeal of playing these shows also comes down to networking. Jones of EMPIRE recently played a robotics conference, an offer that gave him the chance to perform for “a room filled with people who are so ambitious and whose brains work in ways I’ve never thought of,” he says. Such gigs “might not do much for my status,” he continues, “but the people I meet there might open up my mind.” Generally, corporate events also carry less pressure, as the artist isn’t responsible for selling tickets or drawing an audience. “Like, I’m not bringing any more people to a robotics event,” Jones adds.  

Not every act is built for these kinds of shows. “I think what stops a lot of artists from playing corporate gigs is ego because you’re not the center of attention,” Jones continues. “Or they just don’t have the confidence for it, because playing a sober event where everyone can see one another takes a different stage presence from being in a dark club with my sunglasses on smoking a vape and taking shots.”

The artists who do thrive in this world, however, can really hustle while also meeting interesting people and making a lot of money. 

“Pitbull is a corporate juggernaut,” says Leaf. “He’s known to do great corporates and he just crushes across demographics.” She says Lionel Richie, Sheryl Crow and Dave Matthews Band are also active in this space given that their music is so broadly appealing. Other times, companies want to create prestige by booking the hottest niche artist of the moment. At events like SXSW or CES, where attendees have many options for how to spend their time, Leaf says companies “want to book a cool artist, because you want to be the cool party.”   

But ultimately the end goal is the same, regardless of who’s playing. 

“You want guests to walk away with an experience that’s special and doesn’t feel corny,” says Leaf. “Obviously the audience knows the artist was paid to be there, but you want it to feel authentic and like the artist wanted to be there — paid or not.”