Sphere
Page: 4
Las Vegasâ Sphere has its next occupant lined up. The mind-bending venue announced on Thursday (June 13) that Rock and Roll Hall of Famers the Eagles will swoop into town in the fall for eight residency shows over four weekends. The gigs will kick off on Sept. 20 and run through Oct. 19, with a […]
Jennifer Koester is expanding her role at Sphere Entertainment. The live entertainment executive has been named president/COO of Sphere, effective immediately.
Prior to her promotion, Koester served as the companyâs president of Sphere Business Operations, which saw her lead the strategy and execution of all business aspects of Sphere, the next-generation entertainment venue in Las Vegas.Â
In her new role, Koester will continue to work with executive leadership and provide strategic oversight for Sphere Studios, the immersive content studio in Burbank dedicated to developing multi-sensory experiences exclusively for Sphere, including further developing Sphere Studiosâ capabilities as a full-service production studio. Koester will also continue to focus on maximizing venue utilization across a range of categories such as original programming, attractions, concerts, residencies, and corporate and marquee events, as well as driving strategic partnerships, delivering the best customer experience and growing Sphere as a premium global brand.Â
âSince joining our team earlier this year, Jenniferâs contributions have had a significant impact,â said Sphere Entertainment executive chairman/CEO James Dolan in a statement. âWe believe we are just scratching the surface of what is possible with Sphere, and her expertise will be essential as we continue to advance on our long-term vision for this next-generation entertainment medium.âÂ
Trending on Billboard
âI welcome the opportunity to take on this expanded role,â added Koester. âAcross the Sphere organization we are focused on both bringing unique experiences to life in Las Vegas, and developing new experiences that will keep Sphere at the forefront of immersive entertainment. I look forward to continuing to work with our world-class team to grow our business and deliver on Sphereâs vision for the future of entertainment.âÂ
Koester has 30 years of experience in technology, media and entertainment. She joined Sphere Entertainment in February from Google, where she served as MD, Americas strategic alliances, global partnerships at Google Commercial Operations. Her experience prior to Google includes serving as senior vp of advanced advertising product development, data analytics and ad operations at Cablevision, along with various legal roles.
Koester received a J.D. from St. Johnâs University School of Law and a B.S. in management information systems from Binghamton University.  Â

Itâs time for another Executive Turntable, Billboardâs comprehensive(ish) compendium of promotions, hirings, exits and firings â and all things in between â across music. We also have a weekly interview series spotlighting a single executive and a regularly updated gallery honoring many of the industry figures weâve lost throughout the year.
ByteDance has hired former Warner Bros. Pictures legal honcho John Rogovin as the Chinese companyâs new global general counsel, effective immediately. He reports directly to Liang Rubo, CEO of ByteDance. The role includes oversight of TikTok, which has a lot going on right now. Rogovinâs arrival comes as TikTok and ByteDance engage in a monumental battle with the United States government following the passage of legislation requiring the parent company to sell the app or face a national ban. In early May, the company filed a federal lawsuit aimed at overturning the law, calling it an âunconstitutionalâ action aimed at âsilencingâ more than 170 million Americans who use TikTok. TikTok chief Shou Chew rightly said Rogovinâs arrival comes at an âimportant timeâ for the company. Rogovin, who clocked time at both the FCC and the DOJ earlier in his career before a 14-year run at WB, added that he looks forward to âhelping to ensure that our platforms continue to provide a critical forum for more than two billion users worldwide to entertain, teach, and connect with one another.â Rogovin succeeds departing general counsel Erich Andersen, who has shifted to special counsel.
Trending on Billboard
Federica Tremolada
Spotify
Federica Tremolada was promoted to general manager of Europe for Spotify, effective immediately. Tremolada, who spent the last five years as managing director of Southern and Eastern Europe, fills the shoes of Michael Krause, who earlier this week announced his departure after a seven-year run as GM. Both execs made their own announcements on Linkedin, with Krause calling it a âperfect time to pass the batonâ and spend time with family before seeking ânew adventures later this year.â Tremolada, meanwhile, called working at Spotify âone of my biggest dreams come trueâ and listed opening Casa Spotify in Milan, where she is based, and growing the podcast business in the region as some of her tenure highlights. Prior to joining Spotify, Tremolada spent more than a decade at Google, where she rose to head of international partnerships for the YouTube TV squad.
Austin Jenkins was named vp of A&R at Island Records. Based in Nashville, Jenkins started at Island in 2023 and played a pivotal role in the signing and development of artists including Wyatt Flores and Medium Build at the label. He will continue leading Islandâs Nashville operations. Jenkins was formerly the founder, guitarist and songwriter for Texas band White Denim. He later founded Fort Worth, Texas, recording studio Niles City Sound with Josh Block and Chris Vivion, where Jenkins and Block co-produced, recorded and mixed Leon Bridgesâ full-length debut album, Coming Home. Jenkins performed guitar and bass on the album and also toured with Bridges as part of his band.
Adam Salomon was named senior director of A&R at Concord Music Publishing. Salomon joins Concord from London-based music management company Chosen Music, where he led A&R efforts. He reports to Concord Music Publishing executive vp of worldwide A&R Kim Frankiewicz. Originally from Sweden, Salomon has held A&R and management roles across independent and major labels in the country, including Universal Music Sweden, where he led the Svenska Inspelningar label.
Producer, songwriter and rapper Rodney âDarkchildâ Jerkins launched a new record label, Alienz Alive, which Jerkins described in a statement as âa collaborative community of creatives that are Christ-centered where artist development is key. We encourage our artists to use their gifts to uplift and inspire. Sonically speaking the influences are Hip Hop, R&B, and Indie Rock. As long as it glorifies God and itâs dope, all are welcome.â At launch, the Alienz Alive roster includes Jon Keith, GAWVI, IMRSQD Alex Jean and TJ Carroll. Jerkins will be involved in the labelâs day-to-day operations.
Madison House is building a bigger booking agency with the hiring of industry veteran Thomas Ponsart as booking agent and Ruby Williams and Madison Dawson as agent assistants. Bay Area-residing Ponsart has more than a decade of experience and learned under the tutelage of Tom Chauncey and Hank Sacks at Partisan Artists. He brings with him a roster that includes John Craigie,  Monophonics, Parlor Greens, Madeline Hawthorne, Kelly Finnigan, Anthony Villacari and Goodnight, Texas. Williams arrives from Freshwater Art Gallery & Music Venue in Boyne City, Mich., where she booked artists of all stripes, and is now based in Madison Houseâs office in Ann Arbor. Dawson is a recent Belmont grad and intern at Madison House in Nashville, where she is based. âThe ultimate decision to join forces with Madison House is our shared values, growth mindset, adaptability, freedom to pursue new clients, and their tech forward approach to new systems,â said Ponsart. âMadison House has instilled these values in their team for decades and it makes them a commendable and unique business that Iâm excited to call my new home.â
Riser House Records named Amy OâConnor as head of sales and streaming. OâConnor previously served as marketing director at Sony Music/Legacy Recordings, working Sonyâs country legacy catalog including music from Dolly Parton and Willie Nelson, as well as working with artist estates including Johnny Cash and Loretta Lynn. OâConnor previously led the streaming team at Better Noise Music, working on projects for Papa Roach, MĂśtley CrĂźe and Five Finger Death Punch. âJessica Nicholson
Filmmaker and music producer Jesse Lauter joined Peter Shapiroâs Dayglo Presents as head of production & media. In this newly created position, Lauter will oversee the creative side of video and audio production for Dayglo venues, including The Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, NY and the Brooklyn Bowl mini-chain (Brooklyn, Las Vegas, Nashville and Philadelphia), along with the newly added Bearsville Theatre in Woodstock. One of his main responsibilities is directing live-streams for FANS.live and Relix out of the Capitol Theatre. Lauter most recently directed Learning To Live Together: The Return of Mad Dogs & Englishmen about Joe Cocker, and is currently working on a film about swamp rock legends Little Feat. Heâs also worked with Dayglo on a part-time basis for years. âIâve been a part of this family for a long time, and have so much love and respect for Pete and what he has built,â he said. âItâs a perfect fit.â each Lauter is reachable at jesse@dayglopresents.com.
Courtney Zeppetella is no longer senior vp, controller and chief accounting officer of Madison Square Garden Entertainment. Zeppetellaâs resignation, effective May 31, was disclosed in an SEC filing three days prior to her exit. The NYC-based executive joined MSGE in May 2022 following a 21-year run at KPMG, where she rose to audit partner. Michael J. Grau, the companyâs executive vp and CFO, will serve as the companyâs interim principal accounting officer until a replacement is named.
ALL IN THE FAMILY: Billboardâs longtime Australian correspondent Lars Brandle is now head of content at The Brag Media, where heâll oversee strategy across Rolling Stone Australia and New Zealand, Variety Australia, The Music Network, Tone Deaf and more titles. Brandle joined Billboard in 2000 out of the London bureau and for many years served as global news editor and later as overnight editor â along the way amassing a paltry 835 pages of written articles. New gig aside, Brandle isnât fully free of Billboardâs clasp just yet â The Brag Media holds the license for Billboard in Australia. Talk soon, mate!
Sphere Entertainment hired industry veteran Chandra Allison as executive vp of sales and service at the Las Vegas megavenue. In her new role, Allison will drive sales strategies, develop conferences and events, oversee service teams, and build on Sphereâs strong relations with fellow stakeholders in Vegas. Allison, who has done consultant work for Sphere, most recently served as senior vp of strategy and growth at Oak View Group, where she oversaw growth and strategy for its OVG360 portfolio. Prior to OVG, Allison put in nearly 25 years at The Venetian Resort, where she rose to svp of sales and marketing. âSphere is a game-changer in this dynamic market,â she said, âand this is a tremendous opportunity to continue working with the team to develop one-of-a-kind experiences that enhance Sphereâs presence in Las Vegas across a range of event categories and guest experiences.â
NASHVILLE NOTES: Kelli Haywood and Leigh Holt teamed to launch Hsquared Management. The company combines the artist rosters from their respective companies, KCH Entertainment and maddjett, while they also reveal their first signing together, Capitol CMG singer-songwriter Riley Clemmons. The Hsquared client roster also includes Lauren Daigle, Carlos Whittaker, Annie F. Downs and Megan Danielle âJ.N. ⌠UMG Nashvilleâs director of radio marketing Donna Hughes departed after 13 years. Hughes was previously national director of radio syndication at Capitol/EMI Records before those imprints were joined UMG.
ICYMI:
Lee Anderson
Warner Music Group hired Michael Ryan-Southern to lead the companyâs acquisition efforts ⌠CAA appointed Darryl Eaton, Emma Banks and Rick Roskin as co-heads of the global touring division ⌠French collective management organization SACEM extended CĂŠcile Rap-Veberâs term as CEO ⌠MNRK Music Group president and CEO Chris Taylor is resigning effective June 28 and will be replaced by COO Sean Stevenson ⌠Lee Anderson was named president of Wasserman Music ⌠Lionel Ridenour was named executive vp of promotion at gamma. ⌠Dennis Ashley Jr. and son Dennis Ashley III launched a new multimedia firm ⌠Day After Day Productions hired Melanie Davis as head of tour marketing, while promoting Marc Ertel to head of creative and Erin Patterson to head of marketing.
Last Weekâs Turntable: PierFerd Partners Up

Phish fans beware: Smoke a bong in the Las Vegas Sphere at your own risk.
A Phish fan who bragged in April about taking the âfirst bong hit to ever be rippedâ in the Sphere â and posted a viral video of him doing so â now says heâs received a letter from Madison Square Garden Entertainmentâs lawyers banning him from the venue and all other MSG facilities.
In an image of the purported letter posted to an Instagram account called @acid_farts, an attorney for MSG told the unnamed owner of the account that the company âwill not tolerate actions that threaten the safety and security of our guests.â
âYou knowingly violated the guest code of conduct by visibly smoking inside the venue,â wrote Christopher Schimpf, an associate general counsel at MSG, in the letter dated June 3. âIn light of your conduct, you are hereby indefinitely banned from Madison Square Garden, Radio City Music Hall ⌠and any other MSG venue.â
The purported letter, reposted by the well-known Phish fan account called @phunkyourface, told the alleged bong-ripper that he was ânot to enter into or remain in any of the MSG venues at any time in the future.â If he does so, âlaw enforcement will be contacted to ensure your expulsion and you will be subject to the penalties.â
Trending on Billboard
A spokeswoman for MSG did not immediately return a request for comment on the situation.
Coming from MSG, a threat to ban someone is not just bluster. The company has made headlines over the past two years over its use of facial recognition technology to ban certain people from the famed Manhattan arena, including plaintiffsâ lawyers who filed lawsuits against the company. And owner James Dolan has previously issued high-profile bans against Charles Oakley, a former New York Knicks star, as well as against a Knicks fan who yelled at him in 2017 to sell the team.
The use of such technology for safety and security purposes has become widespread and is largely considered legal, and lawsuits from the attorneys who were banned from MSG were mostly unsuccessful. But it has drawn criticism from some civil liberties experts and lawmakers, who fear that it poses privacy risks and could be used punitively.
The Sphere, a $2.3 billion immersive concert venue with LED screens stretching 250 feet above and around the audience, opened in Las Vegas last fall. After a 40-show residency by U2, Phish became the second band to play the state-of-the-art arena with a four-concert run in April, featuring the unique sets and trippy visuals that the Vermont jam bandâs rabid fan base has come to expect.
On April 20, the @acid_farts Instagram account posted a clip that purported to show him at one of those shows, taking a hit from a large glass water bong to applause from nearby fans. His caption: âFirst bong hit to ever be ripped in the @spherevegas @phish Somebody call @guinessworldrecords.â The video itself racked up 447 likes; when @phunkyourface reposted it a day later, it got another 4,773 thumbs up from the Phish faithful.
But apparently MSG wasnât so amused. In his June 3 letter, Schimpf noted that âyou posted an Instagram video of yourself smoking inside the Sphere,â before recounting the exact caption used on the post. He warned that the man was now banned not only from the companyâs venues, but also from âthe box office, Chase Square and the concierge areasâ at the Manhattan arena.
Nobody wants to be banned from MSGâs venues â the company also owns New Yorkâs Beacon Theatre and Chicagoâs Chicago Theater â but such a ruling is particularly problematic for a Phish fan. Back in 2017, the band played a famous 13-night concert residency at MSG dubbed âThe Bakerâs Dozen,â and its New Yearâs Eve concerts at the Midtown arena are an annual tradition for Phish fans. In recent years, Phish frontman Trey Anastasio has also performed at Radio City and The Beacon.
Following the news of the ban letter, Phish fans took to social media to joke about efforts to enforce a smoking ban at Phish shows, which are well-known for a liberal attitude toward drug use. In one post on X, user @MinnieFluff shared an image of Anastasio doing a soundcheck before an empty MSG: âRemaining crowd at Phish NYE 2026 after MSG Entertainment uses facial recognition to ban anyone that has ever smoked inside their venues.â
For his part, the owner of the @acid_farts account seems unfazed by MSGâs threats. In a note below the image of the letter, he said simply: âThe Sphere sent me a plaque to commemorate what is now officially the first bong hit ever taken in The Sphere.â
Neither the owner of @acid_farts nor of @PhunkYourFace immediately returned direct messages from Billboard seeking comment.

Steve Sayer recently celebrated his 10th anniversary at The O2, the AEG Europe-owned and operated London arena that consistently ranks among the worldâs top-grossing concert venues. In 2023, the 21,000-capacity building grossed $220 million from 188 shows, placing it second only to Madison Square Garden (MSG), which grossed $223 million, on Billboardâs Top Venues chart (15,001-plus capacity). In terms of total attendance, The O2 is a global leader, welcoming a record 2.4 million people through its doors last year (600,000 more than MSG), according to figures reported to Billboard Boxscore, justifying its claim to the title of âworldâs most popular music venue.â
This year looks to be just as busy, with The O2 recently hosting sellout shows by Bring Me the Horizon, Take That, Depeche Mode and The 1975 as well as the three-day Country 2 Country (C2C) festival and 2024 Brit Awards. Upcoming bookings include J Balvin, Doja Cat, Justin Timberlake, Janet Jackson, four shows by Liam Gallagher and six shows by The Killers.   Â
Trending on Billboard
âWeâre grossing huge sums for the artists, selling an incredible number of tickets and we continue to invest and innovate to make sure the fans are having an amazing time,â says Sayer, who joined The O2 in 2014 as commercial director before being promoted to VP/GM of the arena four years later.
In addition to overseeing the day-to-day management of the venue, which first opened in 2007, Sayer is responsible for operations at the wider O2 complex, which also contains a second 2,800-capacity venue, a 210,000 square-foot designer shopping outlet, a 19-screen cinema and more than 30 bars and restaurants. âWeâre certainly not resting on our laurels,â says Sayer. âWe want to continue to be the front runner.â
Here, Sayer discusses dynamic ticketing, the rapidly-increasing costs of putting on shows, his opposition to a proposed Sphere venue in London and more.
Steve Sayer
Courtesy Photo
This year marks your 10th anniversary at The O2. What have been some of the biggest highlights and challenges in that time?Â
There have been so many highlights and quite a few challenges. It sounds cliched now, but a global pandemic and the shutting down of the live industry for 18 months was an incredible challenge for everybody. Weâve got nearly 200 [staff] that Iâm responsible for and I guess what Iâm most proud of is leading the team through that period, minimizing a very small number of redundancies and probably coming out stronger at the other end than weâve ever been.
How has the pandemic changed the live and arena business?
Ticket-buying behavior has definitely changed in terms of late buying. Thereâs also been a definite shift in the number of shows that are getting booked within weeks and months of the show playing out. Pre-pandemic we would have really good visibility 12 to 18 months [ahead] in terms of whatâs in the diary. We still have that to a large degree, but 20% of our shows are now short lead and thatâs been a real shift.
What do you regard as some of the biggest issues facing the live music business?
One of them is sustainability. Weâre acutely aware of our responsibilities and we collaborate with all our stakeholders right across the industry and weâre pushing hard on that. It would be remiss of me not to mention general cost inflation, which is impacting every part of the live ecosystem. Our energy costs are significantly higher than they were four years ago, and they are only going one way. Wage inflation has gone through the roof: double-digit growth in the last couple of years. The cost of putting on shows and running venues is significantly higher than it has ever been and that is a challenge to try and manage and mitigate that. Another challenge is the [health of] the broader live music ecosystem. While The O2 is having incredible success, we know the U.K. grassroots sector is having a tougher time. Weâre cognizant of the importance of a vibrant live ecosystem that fuels sustained success for all of us.
Last month, a Parliamentary committee called for a new voluntary tax to be added to arena and stadium tickets sold in the United Kingdom to support struggling grassroots music venues. Is that something The O2 supports?
Itâs something weâve been talking within the industry about. One thing that we have got to understand as far as a levy [is concerned] is just what is legally permissible when you start thinking about competition rules and unilaterally adding levies to the price of a ticket. But it is certainly something that weâre actively exploring and itâs something that weâre talking about within our own business.
Unlike in the United States, the U.K. live music market has so far been generally resistant to the introduction of dynamic ticketing, whereby prices are set according to demand. Can you see that changing?
My sense is that you are going to see more dynamic pricing in the U.K. It will be an interesting challenge. Itâs well understood in Europe that in travel and hotels, you pay a different price based on demand. We havenât had that in the [U.K.] entertainment or the live sector or even really in sport, but obviously, it is commonplace in the U.S. and North America. My sense is that on certain shows and certain artists, it will start to come in. Itâs just a question of over what time period and to what extent. Are we talking about a relatively small number of ringfenced tickets? Or are we talking about the entire manifest? Thatâs the big question.
AEG strongly opposed proposals by MSG to build a Sphere concert arena in East London, not far from where The O2 is based. Madison Square Garden Entertainment (MSGE), which is owned by James Dolan, withdrew those plans in January following opposition from London Mayor Sadiq Khan. Was that a big win for The O2?
The thing with the Sphere that weâve always been quite open about is â itâs not about competition. Competition is healthy. We are constantly looking at what other venues, festivals and other industries are doing and what we can learn. There was a lot of local opposition to the Sphere [in London]. Local residents didnât want the light pollution. Las Vegas is a very different city and a completely different environment to East London. All along we said, âWe donât oppose competition in the live music industry.â But that was the wrong scheme in the wrong location in our view and that was what the [London] Mayor also concluded.
Are there lessons to be learned from the high-profile teething problems at the Oak View Group-owned Co-op Live Arena in Manchester, the U.K.âs biggest concert venue, which finally opened last month after a series of costly delays and cancellations? And what impact do you think the arrival of a major new U.K. arena will have on the wider business?
Building and opening any venue of scale presents various challenges and only underpins the importance of meticulous planning, thorough preparation and engagement with key stakeholders throughout the process, right up to opening day. Thereâs lots that we can always learn from new venues but weâre not resting on our laurels. Weâre going to continue to invest in The O2. This year weâre upgrading our Wi-Fi. Weâre starting a two-year program to renovate all our backstage. Weâre continuing to look at what we can do on the sustainability front, so back-of-house weâre operating as efficiently as we can be. Itâs a good time to be in the industry because while there are challenges, undoubtedly the market forecasts are strong.

Concert industry experts generally thought 2024 would be a down year â or at least less busy than 2023, when Taylor Swift and BeyoncĂŠ catapulted the sector to new heights and challenged the personnel within it to keep pace amid its explosive growth.
But so far, 2024 hasnât brought much rest for the weary. The touring business is entering the summer fueled by huge concert grosses that are unprecedented for the midyear mark, according to Billboard Boxscore.
At midyear, grosses for the top 10 entries on the Top Tours chart total a collective $1.5 billion, up a staggering 83% from last yearâs figure of $814.9 million. That marks the first time the combined gross of the top 10 tours has crossed $1 billion by the halfway point. Last year, only two tours â Elton John and Harry Styles â had generated more than $100 million at midyear. This year, eight of them have.
Leading the chart period, which spanned from Oct. 1, 2023, to March 30, 2024, is U2, which opened the new Sphere venue in Las Vegas with a residency that grossed $231.6 million from 38 shows during that time. (U2âs full 40-date Sphere run grossed $244.5 million, though the first two shows, which took place Sept. 29 and Sept. 30, occurred just before the chart period began.)
On the strength of her fall North American tour along with February and March dates in Oceania, P!nk ranks second on the midyear tally with $196 million grossed from 42 shows. At No. 3, Madonna logged 67 of her Celebration Tourâs 80 dates during the period and grossed $190.6 million for a No. 3 rank (the trek wrapped in early May). Rounding out the chartâs top 10 are three Latin tours (Luis Miguel; RBD; and Enrique Iglesias, Pitbull and Ricky Martin), three pop and rock acts (Coldplay, Depeche Mode and the Eagles) and Travis Scott, the sole hip-hop artist in the rankingâs upper tier, who brought in $96 million from 44 North American arena shows on his Circus Maximus Tour â marking the rapper’s first outing since the deadly 2021 Astroworld festival.
The big revenue gain for the chart periodâs top-earning tours, during what is normally the slower half of the year, is further evidence that â driven largely by international growth in Asia, South America and Australia â the concert business has become an increasingly year-round business.
Leading the Top Promoters midyear chart with $2.8 billion grossed is Live Nation, which has long advocated for steady, incremental international growth. Its main competitor, AEG â No. 2 on Top Promoters with $976.8 million grossed â produced Taylor Swiftâs ongoing The Eras Tour through its partnership with Messina Touring Group and has also continued to expand its footprint globally. Swift did not report her The Eras Tour data to Billboard during the chart period, when she played 26 shows across South America, Australia and Asia.
SPHERE IS HERE
Individual music venues rarely change the entire touring landscape, but few facilities have captured the publicâs imagination quite like Las Vegasâ Sphere. With its ground-breaking interior sound and video display â not to mention its light-up, skyline-dominating exterior â the venue has effectively created a new tier of high-end concert experience.
U2âs No. 1 ranking on Top Tours was driven solely by the 38 U2:UV Achtung Baby Live at Sphere shows from Oct. 1, 2023, through the residencyâs conclusion on March 2, 2024. Those concerts grossed $231.6 million from 630,000 tickets sold, with U2 averaging a $6.1 million gross per show from an average ticket price of $368. While a few megastars have earned more from Vegas residencies, none have ever earned so much from so few shows.
While those in the industry largely view fansâ willingness to increasingly shell out for premium concert experiences as a net positive, some live executives predict that other parts of the sector â festivals, namely â may begin to feel a competitive pinch.
âItâs already getting difficult for festivals to find headliners,â says Wasserman Music agent Sam Hunt, who represents major acts such as Diplo, Run the Jewels and The xx, noting that artists used to make substantially more money headlining festivals than they did headlining arenas. But new ticket-pricing tools have significantly increased what artists can make playing the latter.
That shift in financial posture for the touring business comes amid increasingly frequent festival cancellations, and those woes have extended to the top of the market: This year, Coachella was slow to sell after its initial on-sale and ended up down about 20% in attendance compared with 2023.
Given the choice between festivals and headlining concerts at arenas and stadiums, fans are increasingly choosing the latter. âThere is no more comfortable way to enjoy a show than an arena â especially the newer facilities,â says Mark Shulman, senior vp of programming at UBS Arena in Elmont, N.Y., just outside of Queens, which opened in late 2021. âThe modern arena is a concert palace, with incredible acoustics, comfortable seats and tons of bathrooms, plus all kinds of food and beverage options.â
DOJ LAWSUIT LOOMS
The sectorâs momentum may be hindered by the lawsuit filed by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) in late May seeking to break up Live Nation and Ticketmaster 14 years after the government approved the merger of the two companies. Twenty-nine states and the District of Columbia joined the lawsuit, which alleges an illegal monopoly in the live entertainment industry. âIt is time to break up Live Nation-Ticketmaster,â Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement announcing the suit.
For the government to prove that Live Nation is a monopoly, it must demonstrate that the company has a dominant market share. Though Billboardâs midyear report only measures the top line of the concert market â during the slowest two quarters of the year â it does offer context about the mega-promoterâs clout.
Take the Top Promoters chart. Live Nation and AEG rank first and second, respectively, followed at No. 3 by OCESA â the Mexican promotion company Live Nation purchased in December 2021 â with $403 million in sales. Of the $5.4 billion spent globally on concert tickets to events promoted by the top 20 promoters during the midyear period, according to Boxscore, Live Nation and OCESA accounted for $3.2 billion in sales â about 60% of the total.
That tracks closely to the Top Tours chart, where 31 tours â nearly two-thirds of the overall list of 50 â were produced by Live Nation. Of the top 10 tours, only one, Luis Miguel, was produced by another company. (If Swift had reported data for her AEG-produced The Eras Tour, she undoubtedly would have swelled the number of non-Live Nation productions in the top 10 to two. However, Billboardâs analysis is based only on global data that is voluntarily reported to Billboard Boxscore by promoters, venues and artists.)
A large part of the DOJâs inquiry into Live Nation will revolve around the company’s ownership of Ticketmaster, which it acquired in 2010, along with the platformâs current market share of the concert ticketing business. On that front, Billboard found that 69 of the top 100 venues across Boxscoreâs five highest-capacity charts at midyear were Ticketmaster clients.
This story will appear in the June 1, 2024, issue of Billboard.

05/17/2024
It wasn’t all dancing bears at Dead & Co.’s debut Sphere show (though the bears were there!). Here are our favorite moments from show 1.
05/17/2024
Building a state-of-the-art Sphere venue is ânot like building a McDonalds,â Sphere Entertainment Co. chairman and CEO James Dolan said during the companyâs earnings call on Friday. âItâs complicated. Itâs a very expensive project.â
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
The lone Sphere venue in Las Vegas, which cost $2.3 billion to build through delays and cost overruns during the COVID-19 pandemic, generated revenue of $170.4 million in its fiscal third quarter ended March 31, the parent company, Sphere Entertainment Co, reported Friday. Revenue was slightly better than the $167.8 million in the prior quarter. Adjusted operating income was $12.9 million, slightly down from the prior quarterâs AOI of $14.1 million.Â
Dolan wants to build more Spheres and insists a second venue will materialize. The company is âin discussions with several marketsâ and has encountered âplenty of interest all around the world,â he said, âbut not until we launched the product in September did people really get to see what it was and began to see how it could perform.â
Trending on Billboard
Sphere will reach an agreement with âat least one of those markets soon,â Dolan added. âHow soon Iâm not going to predict.â
Sphere, which wowed music fans through residencies by U2 and Phish, attracted nearly one million guests to more than 270 events in the quarter, said Dolan. In addition to concerts, Sphere offers a motion picture, Postcards from Earth, that CFO David Byrnes said generated $100 million in revenue in the quarter. In June, Sphere will host its first corporate event, a keynote address by Hewlett Packard Enterprise president and CEO Antonio Neri, and its first televised event, the NHL draft.Â
Demand from artists to perform at Sphere is âstronger than we can even accommodate at this point,â Dolan claimed. The company wants to have âa varied number of kinds of acts, not just legacy rock acts,â and âacts that have the biggest draws,â he added.Â
Dead & Co. begins its 24-date residency on May 16. A residency by the Eagles has not been officially announced but Dolan suggested during the earnings call the band will indeed perform at Sphere.Â
âEven if youâre not a Deadhead, youâre gonna love that show,â said Dolan when discussing the need to create âcompellingâ visuals to complement bandsâ musical performances. âAnd I think the same will be true for The Eagles and for the next acts that we bring up.â
Sphere Entertainment Co. had an operating loss of $40.4 million on revenue of $321.3 million. The companyâs other segment, MSG Networks, had AOI of $48.6 million, down 17%, on revenue of $151 million, down 6% from the prior-year quarter. The company explained that those figures decreased from the prior-year quarter âprimarily due to a 12.5% decrease in subscribers inclusive of the impact of MSG+,â the networkâs streaming platform.
It wasnât the technicolor morphing cars, or the giant robot shooting lights from its eyes into the crowd. It wasnât the lava-lamp-like oozes, or the stories-tall geometric patterns, or the hyper-detailed videography of misty mountain ranges and sun-drenched clouds.
Explore
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
No, the trippiest part of Phishâs Sphere visuals was the âYou Enjoy Myselfâ car wash â and what immediately followed.
One of Phishâs oldest and most commonly played songs â and a frequent launchpad for improvisation throughout the revered Vermont jam bandâs four-decade career â âYou Enjoy Myselfâ is strange enough in its audio-only form. An intricately composed instrumental passage builds to an all-out scream (which audiences usually join in on) before the tension gives way to famously inscrutable lyrics (a consensus best guess for the songâs repeated line: âWash Uffizi drive me to Firenzeâ) and a jam section. During an instrumental breakdown, roadies produce trampolines for singer-guitarist Trey Anastasio and bassist Mike Gordon to jump on in tandem; the song often concludes with each member of the quartet participating in an a cappella âvocal jamâ â described by fan site Phish.net as âfeaturing spontaneous vocal improvisation, from the merely strange to the auricularly traumatic.â
Phish perform âYou Enjoy Myselfâ at Sphere on April 19, 2024 in Las Vegas.
Alive Coverage
During its four-night residency at the cutting-edge Las Vegas venue, however, Phish paired most of âYou Enjoy Myselfâ with an animated visual on the venueâs 160,000-square-foot LED screen that simulated going through a massive car wash â in a vehicle alongside the band and nearly 20,000 friends. The top of a steering wheel occupied the screenâs lower left corner; suds and water streaked the screen as Phish methodically progressed through the songâs stages. And as the car exited the wash and Anastasio, Gordon, keyboardist Page McConnell and drummer Jon Fishman finally arrived at the vocal jam â one of the strangest parts of its repertoire â footage of an enormous black dog appeared on the screen.
Trending on Billboard
With the audience positioned as if it was inside the camera itself, the canine started licking the lens. For several minutes, the crowd laughed hysterically as the momentâs absurdity deepened. It was a perspective-shifting piece of immersive art that was funny, weird, and totally unique.
Phish perform âYou Enjoy Myselfâ at Sphere on April 19, 2024 in Las Vegas.
Rene Huemer
Before Phishâs Sphere shows, which took place April 18-21, Abigail Rosen Holmes, a longtime collaborator of the band and co-creative director of the run, told Billboard of one of the creative teamâs guiding principles: âIf you would do this for one of the other artists you work with, itâs probably not unique enough to be for Phish.â And while not every visual treatment across the bandâs four shows felt quite that unique, many did. Phish, alongside Holmes, multimedia studio Moment Factory and the rest of its team, approached its Sphere gigs with comprehensive, detail-oriented creativity. The result: a superb four-show run that continued Phishâs career-long live inventiveness â and set the bar high for each artist preparing to play the Las Vegas venue going forward.
Across four nights and eight sets of music â featuring 68 different songs, with nary a repeat â Phish cycled through a staggering range of immersive visuals that spanned trippy abstractions to real-life footage to playful illustrations. In a SiriusXM interview during the run, Anastasio called Phishâs Sphere shows âa slight step forward in the psychedelic live jam music experience,â and naturally, many of the bandâs visuals were vibrantly colored splotches, squiggles, and lines that supported its music.
Phish perform at Sphere on April 18, 2024 in Las Vegas.
Alive Coverage
But the weekendâs most memorable visuals took the mediumâs possibilities a step further. On the first night, Phish speckled Sphereâs screen with a multitude of dots to score âSand,â and iterated that visual motif to great effect during other shows, for songs like âWhatâs The Use?â and âChalk Dust Torture.â For the first nightâs encore, vivid video of a barn by night in a forest, aurora borealis overhead, soundtracked the rustic âFarmhouseâ; on the runâs final night, the crisply composed âDivided Skyâ was paired with footage of billowing clouds, cast in the orangish-purple glow of the late afternoon sun â and, to accompany a mid-song change in tone, the image switched to grayscale.
Some of the visuals were just plain fun. For âBathtub Gin,â hundreds of miniature swimmers rotated back and forth on floaties on an oceanâs surface. âTwistâ began with a wall of dark-red loops that were quickly interspersed with an alphabet soup of letters; when the songâs âWoo!â interjection arrived, characters spelling the word shot up from the bottom of the screen. During the final nightâs âGhost,â a robot-like figure peered up above the band from the screenâs bottom â and spotlights shot from its eyes into the audience.
Phish perform at Sphere on April 18, 2024 in Las Vegas.
Alive Coverage
And while Anastasio remarked to the Washington Post prior to the Sphere shows that we was skeptical about his own image being â800 feet high on the wall,â like Bono and The Edge during U2âs concerts at the venue, several Phish visuals were framed around the band â they just eschewed straight-ahead imagery in favor of designs that obscured, warped or refracted the musicians. During âMaze,â a tower of live video of the band split into tiny geometric shapes that repeatedly dispersed and reformed. âMy Friend, My Friendâ began with Sphereâs screen entirely off and a slowly rotating spotlight casting the band in silhouette against it; as the song intensified, the silhouette multiplied across the screen as the venue was drenched in eerie red lighting.
In the same way the âMy Friend, My Friendâ visual proved that Sphere visuals can be striking even in simplicity â especially when contrasted with other, more elaborate animations and designs â a new rig conceived by the bandâs esteemed designer Chris Kuroda in tandem with Moment Factory subtly added to the sensory effect. Kuroda has worked with the band since 1989, and has used his increasingly complex lighting rigs to âjamâ with the band.
At Sphere, his lighting setup was scaled back â relatively speaking â to six vertical beams and four horizontal strips running behind the band onstage. The lights assumed more of a supporting role than at normal Phish shows, but still accentuated the sensory experience â and were integral parts of it on songs like âA Wave of Hopeâ and â2001.â
Phish perform âTasteâ at Sphere on April 20, 2024 in Las Vegas.
Alive Coverage
Still, as Holmes explained, the Sphere run was designed to âuse all of the opportunities of the building â the audio, the visuals â and do it while supporting Phish truly playing music the way Phish plays music.â Phishâs run was revelatory in terms of production, but those bells and whistles only enhanced the music itself â which, as is often the case on Phish runs, deepened in scope and ambition with each show.
Musically, the band was at its exploratory best during the second sets of the final two shows. Phish appropriately made âFuego,â off the 2014 album of the same name, a centerpiece of its 4/20 show, quickly abandoning the songâs Zeppelin-y riff for soaring art-rock, contemplative ambience and, eventually, heavy funk across jamâs 29-minute runtime. Later in the set, on reliable classic âChalk Dust Torture,â Phish demonstrated the mature efficiency it has developed over the years, compellingly cycling through more musical ideas than its 16-minute duration might suggest.
The final night was even better. Sequenced in the same second-set two slot as âFuegoâ the previous night, âDown With Disease,â a beloved Phish jam vehicle that has cracked 20 minutes more than 40 times since its 1995 debut, received a record-long rendition, clocking in at 34 minutes. Colorful ridges shapeshifted behind Phish as Anastasio and McConnellâs instruments panned across Sphereâs speakers. (Sphere Immersive Sound allows for the targeted movement of audio; used throughout Phishâs shows, some panning instances were additive, others disorienting.) As the jam unfolded, the quartet increasingly locked in, masterfully riding through peaks and grooves; after arriving in a krautrock-esque pocket, the band perfectly timed its return to the melodic reprise that ends the song. Inspired playing on â2001,â âLightâ and âPiperâ followed.
Periodic issues with panning and mix â which were more common at the start of the run, as Phishâs team learned Sphereâs acoustic intricacies â notwithstanding, Sphereâs audio significantly elevated even the slightest of songs. The high-end audio helped Gordonâs propulsive bass lines shine throughout the run, especially on songs like âSandâ and âTubeâ; each member of the band was distinguishable at nearly every point during the shows â far from a given at many of the arenas and amphitheaters Phish regularly frequents.
Phish perform âPillow Jetsâ at Sphere on April 20, 2024 in Las Vegas.
Alive Coverage
And for all the focus on visual surprises â and how Phish would navigate a show where, inherently, their jamming inclinations and setlist were more tethered to a plan than usual â the band still offered up plenty of unexpected selections. After forgoing the interstitial âI Am Hydrogenâ (and replacing it with âLifeboyâ) that typically sits between âMikeâs Songâ and âWeekapaug Grooveâ on Thursday, the band played it Saturday â the first time thatâs happened without its usual bookends since 1987 and, freed from its normal structure, a worthy lead-in to that showâs late highlight, âChalk Dust Torture.â
Meanwhile, Phish played four unreleased songs that debuted in 2023 â which will ostensibly appear on their upcoming album Evolve, due this July â along with âEvolveâ and four other songs from Anastasioâs pandemic-era solo albums which, like âEvolve,â may be reworked for Phishâs new set. The bandâs treatment of this material was striking: âPillow Jetsâ was visually paired with a trip through a forest where multicolored bursts shot up trees like fireworks; chatter for the rest of the run was that it was the single best animation the band played in front of. âMercyâ served a critical tonal link on Friday between âAxilla (Part II)â and âBathtub Gin,â and âHey Strangerâ and âOblivionâ both received sterling readings on Sunday that lived up to the opportunity cost of other classics that went unplayed. (Conspicuously, at Sphere, Phish steered clear entirely of all the tracks comprising Gamehendge, the fantasy song cycle it revisited in full this past New Yearâs Eve.)
The new music wasnât limited to Phishâs Sphere performances proper. In the venueâs lobby â adorned with suspended red donuts in keeping with the bandâs iconography â gentle guitar music played, composed of loops and layers that Anastasio recorded specially for the occasion. In a sentiment shared by many Phish fans, one X user posted, âCanât wait for Trey to release âMusic For Lobbies.’â
Phish perform âA Song I Heard The Ocean Singâ at Sphere on April 19, 2024 in Las Vegas.
Alive Coverage
That thoughtful ethos â carefully considering every aspect of the run to deliver a quality experience for dedicated fans â extended to the overarching creative vision of the shows. In the wee hours of the morning of April 18, Sphere posted a video with Phish tagged and the message âItâs only a matter of timeâŚâ Ahead of the Sphere run, Holmes had hinted the shows would have loose themes, and as the concerts took place, a matter-based nightly theme â progressing from solid to liquid to gas to plasma â became evident.
The most cohesive and effective was liquid, on the runâs second night. The band played several liquid-related songs across its two sets as visuals took fans from the waterâs surface (on âMercyâ and âBathtub Ginâ) to the deep sea (on âTheme From The Bottom,â where unnerving schools of humans â not fish â darted across the screen).
The sequence was not only effective for the visuals, but for the playing⌠which despite setlist constraints, still breathed. When Phishâs crew hoisted two large jellyfish mobiles during âA Song I Heard The Ocean Sing,â it felt monumental: Phish had married visuals on the screen, physical adornments, and outstanding jamming, and harnessed Sphereâs potential in the process.
The band had to sacrifice a degree of spontaneity to hit its marks, which surely frustrated some fans â but the magical payoff was worth it. Besides, the other nightâs themes were less pronounced; while Phish seemed a little boxed-in by its setlist choices â and opening night jitters â during the runâs first show, it rarely felt musically constrained as its Sphere run progressed.
Phish perform âWading In The Velvet Seaâ at Sphere on April 19, 2024 in Las Vegas.
Rene Huemer
At times, the shows felt like Phishâs own miniature Eras Tour â an ambitious, career-spanning concert experience that recontextualized, and pushed forward, old material while capably integrating newer songs. Phish didnât dwell on the past, but tastefully nodded to it with the visuals for two songs that date back to the mid-â90s.
For its Friday encore of the tear-jerker âWading In The Velvet Seaâ (this was liquid night, after all), Phish programmed a slew of photos from throughout its history, which by the songâs climax coalesced into a sprawling collage. On Saturday, longtime Phish artist Jim Pollockâs etched illustrations for the first 20 volumes of the LivePhish series (released from 2001 to 2003) were brought to life as concentric rotating bronze bands that stretched to Sphereâs apex â amid so much artistic innovation, a savvy way of nodding to the creative whose visual style is most strongly associated with the band.
And the runâs bookends tied it all together. As tentative fans settled into the seats at the new-to-most venue on Thursday, Phish launched into âEverythingâs Rightâ as geometric beams sprouted from the floor and ceiling behind them. For the closing song of its Sunday encore, the beams â now slightly rounded and colorized â reappeared for âSlave To The Traffic Light.â Gordonâs loping bass line assumed a victory-lap quality: Phish had mastered Sphere in its own distinct way.

You couldnât throw a juggling stick in Las Vegas last week without hitting a Phish phan who was totally phreaking out about the bandâs mind-melting run of shows at the Sphere. Definitely count comedian and The Price Is Right host Drew Carey among those whose minds were pried open by the visual and musical spectacle the veteran Vermont jam band brought to the one-of-a-kind venue.
How do we know Carey really, really enjoyed his first Phish-sperience? Well, he described it in vivid, strangely sexual detail in a bonkers rant on fellow comedian Taylor Tomlinsonâs late night show After Midnight on Tuesday night. During the talky portion of the show where contestants typically answer the hostâs jokey questions, Tomlinson asked Carey âif you werenât being filmed right now, what would you say?â
That was all the runway Carey needed to launch into a psychedelic monologue that had the typically unflappable host looking amusingly shocked.
Trending on Billboard
âGimme a minute. So, I saw Phish at the Sphere this weekend. Never saw Phish, didnât know a Phish tune, and they fâking blew my mind off so hard,â Carey said as he hustled to center stage and began walking around animatedly and gesticulating like a religious convert as Tomlinson said âohâ and fellow guest âWeirdâ Al Yankovic looked delightedly confused. âI had a bunch of girls with me, and I thought to myself is this what itâs like toâŚâ Carey said, as censors stepped in to bleep what appeared to be a graphic sexual description.
Carey definitely didnât stop there. âIt was like being edged for four days straight. And then right before the face-melting climax at the end of the fourth day, an angel comes down from heaven, Gabriel, and he shoots fâking heroin in your arm, and he says, âGood luck now motherfâer!â And he leaves, and you have an orgasm for 15 minutes while your eyeballs fall out of your head!â
Cut to a shot of Tomlinson looking, well, amusingly phreaked out while the next five minutes of her show were totally, and hilariously, derailed by the Carey crack-up as Thomas Lennon (Reno 911!) could not stop making jokes about the rant. âNext time they play the Sphere, you better not miss it,â Carey counseled. âThat was so great and we can definitely use all of it, absolutely, absolutely we can.â Tomlinson joked.
âHR wants to talk to all of you,â Lennon said.
What she couldnât have used was an earlier from Carey on Monday, in which he got even more graphic. âI swear I just talked to God I would give you all my money, stick my dâk in a blender and swear off pây for the rest of my life in exchange for this,â Carey wrote along with video of the show he saw. âBro I met God tonight for real. I feel like I just got saved by Jesus no lie.â
Watch Careyâs Phish tale below.
[embedded content]
#Phish at the #SphereI swear I just talked to GodI would give you all my money, stick my dick in a blender and swear off pussy for the rest of my life in exchange for this. Bro I met God tonight for real. I feel like I just got saved by Jesus no lie pic.twitter.com/Wci1OdUp3Fâ ĘÇÉšÉĆ ĘÇɚᥠ(@DrewFromTV) April 22, 2024