Touring
Page: 114
Revenues for Madison Square Garden Entertainment (MSGE) rose 24% to $642.2 million in the second quarter, bolstered by strong consumer and corporate demand for events plus a raft of cost cuts, the company reported Thursday (Feb. 9).
Speaking for the first time since publicly announcing the company is exploring a sale of its stake in Tao Group Hospitality, MSGE CFO Dave Byrnes said that revenue growth came from broad-based demand for events, hospitality, suites, sponsorship and merchandise.
The company is also undergoing a complex restructuring to spin off its live entertainment business — which houses its namesake venue and the Rockette’s Christmas Spectacular production — from its business focused on MSG Sphere, the state-of-the-art Las Vegas venue currently under construction. The latter business would also house MSG Networks and (at least for now) Tao Group.
“We are moving swiftly and anticipate completing the spin-off by the end of March,” Byrnes said on a call to discuss the financial results.
Byrnes also said that the MSG Sphere, with its 580,000 square-foot LED exosphere (the world’s largest LED screen), is expected to open in September with an as-yet-announced artist residency and potentially an “original attraction” from a leading Hollywood director. Byrnes said they expect to announce both in the coming weeks.
It is those two types of events — artist performances and films — plus advertising, sponsorship and hospitality, that MSGE hopes will help pay for the $2.175 billion price tag of building the Sphere.
MSGE had roughly $2.01 billion in debt as of the quarter ending on Dec. 31, and about $554 million in cash on hand and restricted cash.
The company announced last quarter that it was exploring areas within the company to cut costs, including letting go of staff in areas including the MSG Networks division. The severance pay and other elements related to those job reductions led to a $13.7 million charge in the quarter.
The MSG Networks segment generated $158.9 million in revenue, 1% lower than a year ago, due to higher rights fees partially offset by increasing advertising revenues.
The company’s entertainment segment generated $356.5 million, up significantly over last year on mostly sold-out events at The Garden and a full run of the Christmas Spectacular — its first in three years due to the pandemic.
Byrnes also elaborated on the company’s decision to shop around its stake in the Tao Group, saying it was time for the company to explore the opportunity to provide a significant return to its shareholders.
MSG paid $181 million for a 62.5% interest in the hospitality group in 2017 and now owns 67% of the company.
“The bidding process is extremely robust with significant interest from multiple bidders,” Byrnes said. “We’re moving forward through the process and we’ll keep you updated as we have additional news.”
The Tao Group generated $136 million in revenue, up 16% from last year when the Omicron variant of COVID-19 dampened demand for corporate holiday parties and dining out.
Additionally, MSGE filed a request on Thursday with the New York City Department of Planning to lift the time limit on Madison Square Garden’s special operating permit, which is currently set to expire on July 24. The Garden deserves to remain where it is in perpetuity, the company said in a statement, because moving it could cost $8.5 billion in public funding and improvements to the portion of Penn Station located beneath The Garden are already proceeding without the venue needing to move.
After years of touring around the globe, Bob the Drag Queen is gearing up for her biggest tour yet — and this time, it’s with pop icon Madonna.
In a new interview with Billboard, the drag superstar dishes on her upcoming special guest slot on Madonna’s 40 year-retrospective world trek, the Celebration Tour. “You ever think about how lucky you are to be alive at the same time as someone else?” Bob says. “We get to be alive at the same time as Madonna.”
The pair were first introduced when Bob served as host for Madonna’s New York Pride show at Terminal 5 in 2022. “Her daughter recommended me to host, and Madonna just really took a liking to me after that,” she says. “She sang me ‘Happy Birthday,’ she’s bought me cupcakes, I talk with her kids, and we just became really fast pals.”
It wasn’t until November of last year that Madonna officially asked Bob to join her on her expansive tour — or at least, Madonna thought she was officially asking Bob. “She DM’d my mom on Instagram, because she thought it was my Instagram,” Bob says with a laugh. “My mom texted me like, ‘Madonna wants to work with me!’ I was like, ‘Mom, I’m pretty sure she thinks you’re me.’ It came so close to being my mom on tour with Madonna instead of me.”
The RuPaul’s Drag Race season eight winner teased that fans can expect “a journey through four decades of the top-selling woman in the history of music,” with the queen “there to help facilitate the journey” throughout the show’s run.
Fans spotted Bob in Madonna’s tour announcement video, in which the star had a series of her celebrity friends — including Diplo, Amy Schumer, Judd Apatow, Jack Black and Lil Wayne — join her for a game of Truth or Dare. As Bob tells it, no one in the video knew what was supposed to happen until the cameras started rolling.
“I was the first one there, and then all of these people began streaming in. I was like, ‘Wait, Amy Schumer? Jack Black? What is going on?’” Bob recalls. “We all thought that we were individually going to be taking some photos with Madonna, none of us knew about this. Only Madonna could get us all to show up like that.”
When it comes to personal impact, Bob says she’s been moved by Madonna’s grace and trust in her. “She respects me in a way that doesn’t feel like a novelty,” she says. “Obviously, what matters most is how I feel about myself, but still, a stamp of approval from Madonna is just like … ‘What?!’”
The Celebration Tour kicks off July 15 in Vancouver, B.C. Get your tickets to see Bob and Madonna on tour here.
Longtime Los Angeles Philharmonic music and artistic director Gustavo Dudamel will move to the New York Philharmonic in the same role starting in 2026, the NY Phil announced Tuesday (Feb. 7).
Dudamel, who has served as music and artistic director at the LA Phil since 2009 and also currently serves as music director of the Opéra National de Paris and the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra, will begin a five-year term at the NY Phil starting with the orchestra’s 2026-27 season. He will additionally serve as music director designate during the 2025-26 season.
“Today, above all, I am grateful. I am grateful to the musicians and leadership of the New York Philharmonic as we embark upon this new and beautiful journey together. As the great poet Federico García Lorca said: ‘Every step we take on earth brings us to a new world,’” said Dudamel, adding, “I gaze with joy and excitement at the world that lies before me in New York City.”
Dudamel has guest-conducted 26 concerts at the NY Phil since his debut there in November 2007. He’s slated to return this spring to conduct the orchestra in three performances of Mahler’s Symphony No. 9 from May 19-21, which will mark his first time conducting in the reimagined David Geffen Hall’s Wu Tsai Theater.
“This is a dream come true for our musicians, our audience, and certainly for me,” said NY Phil’s Linda and Mitch Hart president/CEO Deborah Borda in a statement. “The coming together of a great orchestra, a visionary Music and Artistic Director, and our transformed hall promises the richest of futures.”
NY Phil executive director Gary Ginstlin, who will succeed Borda as president/CEO, added, “With Gustavo Dudamel, the Philharmonic is poised for what I believe will be one of the most exciting chapters in its storied history.”
NY Phil principal trumpet Christopher Martin added that the orchestra feels “an extraordinary connection” with Dudamel. “This moment aligns with the unparalleled artistic tradition of this nation’s oldest orchestra,” he continued. “We look forward to sharing our deepening musical relationship with audiences both in our revitalized David Geffen Hall and on tour around the world.”
A group of musicians who have gathered together under the banner of the Union of Musicians and Allied Workers (UMAW) has published a petition calling for better pay for artists selected to perform at the annual SXSW conference and festival each March. The petition — which at press time bore the names of more than 400 artists, and which is being continually updated with more names — has been signed by artists such as Eve 6, Mountain Goats, Jeremy Messersmith, Speedy Ortiz, Zola Jesus, Pedro the Lion, YACHT and Emperor X, as well as the Songwriters of North America (SoNA). Of the signees listed on the site, a half-dozen are scheduled to play SXSW this year.
In the petition, the UMAW is taking aim at the compensation that artists receive for being officially invited to perform at the festival, which launched in Austin in 1987. The petition claims that artists who are selected to perform must first pay an application fee, which has risen from $40 in 2012 to $55 this year, while they are offered a choice of either a festival wristband or $250 ($100 for a solo artist) as compensation. International artists, the petition says, are only offered a wristband, with no possibility of financial compensation.
In light of those claims, the UMAW is requesting that compensation for artists be raised from $250 to $750 per act; that a festival wristband be included as part of that compensation, not as an either/or choice; that international artists be offered the same compensation as domestic U.S. artists; and that the application fee be eliminated. The petition is addressed to SXSW and Penske Media, which owns Billboard as well as publications like Rolling Stone, Variety, and The Hollywood Reporter. (In April 2021, Penske Media Corporation became an investor in SXSW by taking a 50% stake in the conference and festival. A rep for PMC did not respond to a request for comment.)
“SXSW is honored to host over 1,400 showcasing acts every March,” a SXSW spokesperson said in a statement to Billboard. “We are committed to creating professional opportunities by bringing emerging artists together with media, the global music industry, and influential audiences. We appreciate the feedback from the UMAW and will be doing our policy review after next month’s event.”
The UMAW, which has 18 members on its steering committee, including Sadie Dupuis of Speedy Ortiz and Zachary Cole Smith of DIIV, has been active with petitions in the past. The most impactful has been the Justice At Spotify campaign, launched in 2020 to protest the low streaming royalty payouts from the music streamer, which was signed by more than 6,000 individuals and demanded both higher royalty rates and a switch to user-centric royalties. That initiative was followed up with a series of protests by musicians outside Spotify offices around the globe in March 2021; days later, Spotify launched a website called Loud & Clear intended to increase transparency around how it pays rights holders.
Yeah Yeah Yeahs is coming to a city near you! On Tuesday (Feb. 7), the group — which consists of members Karen O, Brian Chase and Nick Zinner — announced that it will hit the road this summer for a tour across North America, Europe and Asia.
Explore
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
The North American leg of the tour will kick off on May 3 with a date at Washington, D.C.’s The Anthem. The trio will make stops, for solo gigs and on the festival circuit, throughout Atlanta, Houston, Minneapolis, Chicago and more before concluding on June 10 at The Greek Theatre in Berkley, Calif. After performing at Japan’s Fuji Rock Festival, the band will hit up London, Paris, Amsterdam and Berlin in August. The Faint and Perfume Genius will be supporting the band on select dates.
Fans wanting to see the Yeah Yeah Yeahs can score pre-sale tickets starting on Wednesday, Feb. 8, at 8 a.m. PT (password is COOLKIDZ23). General on-sale begins on Friday, Feb. 10, at 10 a.m. local. If your city has been skipped this time around, don’t worry. “We’ll be announcing some more dates soon!” the group wrote on Instagram.
In addition to the tour dates, the group dropped the video for “Blackdrop,” which hails from its fifth studio album, Cool It Down. The visual features lead singer Karen O in glittering eye makeup and glossy red lips, singing the track’s emotive lyrics in a fuzzy video reminiscent of the ’80s.
“‘Blacktop’ stuck out to me early on — the demo was very stripped down instrumentally and emotionally. It was a step towards what radical closeness feels like after a long separation,” the singer explained in a press release. “Each record has one of these diamonds in the rough that just feels like flying to me. It felt right to keep the video as stripped down and dare I say beautiful in its naïveté. David Black put us in front of his ’70s analog video camera with the intention to pull stills for band shots. He had me sing to ‘Blacktop’ before I had even memorized the lyrics — I thought I knew the song by heart but it felt like an introduction, like meeting it for the first time. It wasn’t intended to end up as a video and as a return to the earliest visuals from the record it completes a circle. We’re so happy we have it, a simple layered performance for a deceptively simple song. We hope you enjoy.”
Watch the visual for “Blacktop” in the video above. See the dates for Yeah Yeah Yeahs summer tour below.
YEAH YEAH YEAHS 2023 TOUR DATES
With his second producer of the year non-classical trophy in hand after the 2023 Grammy Awards on Sunday (Feb. 5), Jack Antonoff took some time during his press chat after accepting to weigh in on the recent controversies around ballooning concert ticket prices and on-sale snafus for some of the industry’s biggest acts.
The producer-songwriter and frequent Taylor Swift collaborator made one thing perfectly clear during his chat with reporters on his feelings about mega-promoters: Them, they’re the problem, not us.
“The whole thing is incredibly tough. There’s no reason why … if I can go online and buy a car and have it delivered to my house, why can’t I buy a f–king ticket at the price that the artist wants it to be? So it’s that simple,” Antonoff said of the distress facing some fans when buying tickets to shows by their favorite acts.
“And you know the reason why. And it’s not ’cause of artists,” he added, without naming names of any industry ticketing agencies in particular. “So the one thing that I would say while holding a microphone is everybody’s got to chill on the artists. Because everyone’s trying to figure it out. We know who’s making it impossible.”
Antonoff, who has held forth on the topic of touring and dynamic ticket pricing before, said that he would like to see the industry allow artists to opt-out of the format that often results in sky-high prices for fans. He also stumped for the industry to stop “taxing merch” and allow artists to sell tickets at a “price they actually believe.”
In the wake of January’s contentious Senate Judiciary hearings on Ticketmaster, Ineffable Music Group announced a plan to cut merch fees for bands at its venues.
“Don’t turn a live show into a free market,” Antonoff said. “Because that’s really dirty. Charge what you think is fair … but if [for] one person $50 is nothing and for one person $50 is more than they can ever spend … you’re creating a situation where a different group of people can come together at one price. The second everything fluctuates is the second it goes K-shaped and turns into a weird free market is not what we do.”
Back in November, Antonoff tweeted out a similar complaint in which he blasted music venues for taking a cut of artist’s merch sales. “While we are having the discussion can venues simply stop taxing merch of artists? This is literally the only way you make money when you start out touring,” he wrote. “The more we make it tenable for young and small artists to make a living on the road the more great music we will get. Touring is one of the most honest ways to make a living. Some of the hardest and most heartfelt work you can do. So why must [they] f— artist[s] so hard?”
Antonoff added, “[Simple] solutions, stop taxing merch, stop lying to artists about costs of putting on shows, include artists in more areas of revenue. The stories I could tell from my years of touring are bananas. Young artists on tour are the last to see any money.”
Watch him discuss ticket pricing and merch in the Grammys press room below:
It’s a banner day for New York attorney Kurt Dominic Robertson, who is no longer persona non grata at the world’s most famous arena.
The same goes for the attorneys at Los Angeles law firm Wilshire Law Group, New York lawyer Laura Rosenberg and non-lawyer Ryan Kenneth Randall, a Las Vegas resident representing himself in a lawsuit filed against Tao Group, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and the “guy who punched me at 10:30 pm on a Saturday Memorial Day Weekend the police took into custody.”
Robertson and those others are all involved in litigation against Madison Square Garden-owned Tao Group and were barred from entering the Manhattan arena or any other MSG property under a controversial policy enacted by chairman James Dolan last year. But that all changed today when the company announced it was selling Tao Group and lifting “the adverse attorney policy for any litigation currently pending with Tao entities.” MSG paid $181 million for a 62.5% interest in the hospitality group in 2017.
“This is great news,” says attorney Kurt Robertson, who was banned from MSG properties for representing a client in a personal injury lawsuit filed against a Tao venue in Manhattan.
“When I first got the letter about the ban, I thought it was a prank,” Robertson continues. After calling MSG’s lawyers and learning that the ban was being enforced via facial recognition software, he says, “I decided I wasn’t going to test the policy” and allow himself to be made an example of by MSG security staff.
Robertson and other attorneys suing Tao are no longer barred from entering any MSG-owned property, including the Garden, Radio City Music Hall, the Beacon Theater, the Chicago Theatre and the soon-to-open Sphere in Las Vegas.
Attorneys suing other MSGE entities, along with all employees at their law firms, are still banned from entering all MSGE-owned facilities and risk being escorted off the premises by MSG staff if they are recognized by MSG’s facial recognition software.
The controversial rule, affecting an estimated 90 law firms, is currently being challenged by a number of private law firms along with Attorney General Letitia James, who voiced concern in a Jan. 24 letter that any attempts by MSG “to dissuade individuals from filing discrimination complaints or encouraging those in active litigation to drop their lawsuits so they may access popular entertainment events at the Company’s venues may violate state and city laws prohibiting retaliation.”
James also warned that “research suggests that the Company’s use of facial recognition software may be plagued with biases and false positives against people of color and women.”
MSGE stock was up about 2% in after-market trading on the news.
Kygo is bringing his Palm Tree Music Festival series to the Golden State on May 13. The one-day festival will be hosted at one of Southern California’s most famous surfing locales — Doheny State Beach in Dana Point — and will be headlined by Kygo and Ellie Goulding with additional performances by Tove Lo, The Midnight, The Knocks, Two Feet and Forester.
Curated by Kygo and Manager Myles Shear and produced by Live Nation, which has long hosted the Ohana festival on the same site, the Palm Tree Music Festival Dana Point is an expansion of the Norwegian DJ and producer’s live event brand at exotic locales around the world. Later this month, Kygo will join Jack White to headline a Palm Tree festival in Aspen, and in March, he’ll headline Palm Tree Festival Bali. Kygo will also headline three Palm Tree festivals throughout Australia between March 10 and 12 with Tiesto.
The inaugural California festival “will blend one-of-a-kind, luxurious experiences with unmatched summer nostalgia to bring fans from around the world together in celebration of a tropical lifestyle and incredible musical talent,” according to a press release.
Dana Point will be the collective’s first festival hosted on an actual beach. It will feature an exclusive VIP lounge and “Palm Tree Beach Club,” where guests can take in beachside views from shaded cabanas, hammocks and beyond in some of the festival’s most premium spaces.
“We are thrilled to bring the Palm Tree Music Festival experience beachside at Dana Point,” Kygo said in a statement. “The tropical lifestyle isn’t just our brand, it’s a way of life, and we couldn’t be more excited to finally hit the sand with our community to start the summer season with good vibes and great music.”
“Since our inception, the goal of Palm Tree Music Festival has been to create incredible experiences that bring together our close friends and community through music and a never-ending summer state of mind,” Shear added. “We’re proud to bring this experience to Dana Point in partnership with Live Nation and to share the tropical lifestyle with a new audience.”
Founded in 2016 by Kygo and Shear, Palm Tree Crew first came to life when the pair began gifting palm tree necklaces to their inner circle as a symbol of community. Today, Palm Tree Crew is a diversified holding company that owns and operates a consumer brand, a global live events business and a multi-product investment platform, all within one unified ecosystem that embodies the care-free vibe of an endless summer.
Ticket prices begin at $169.50 for General Admission. VIP Packages and Table/Bottle Service will be available as well. Presale begins Feb. 8 at 10:00 AM PST and runs until Feb 9 at 10:00 PM PST. General on sale begins Friday, Feb 10 at 10:00 AM PST at www.palmtreemusicfestival.com.
Courtesy Photo
The United Kingdom-based Ambassador Theatre Group (ATG) is expanding its San Antonio venue portfolio from two facilities to three with the opening of The Espee, a 3,175-capacity outdoor boutique amphitheater and special event venue located in the city’s historic St. Paul Square entertainment district.
ATG’s GM, Emily Smith, says the venue will service “musical performances to community gatherings and everything in between,” noting that the name Espee originates from the initials S.P., short for Southern Pacific Railroad Network. The Espee is located on the site of San Antonio’s Sunset Station, the city’s first train station and one of five stops on the Sunset Limited passenger train route that began in 1894, connecting Los Angeles to New Orleans.
The Spanish Mission Revival-style complex first opened in 1905 and was purchased and redeveloped in 2019 by two private ownership groups that operated a nightclub on the Espee site for about a year. In 2022, ATG signed on to renovate and operate the space. Improvements include enhanced in-house sound and lighting, renovated artist accommodations and refreshed restroom facilities.
Paying tribute to its past, the Espee will open March 4 with the daylong All Aboard festival featuring Head and the Heart, Danielle Ponder, Grupo Fantasma and more.
ATG also operates San Antonios Majestic and Empire theatres as part of its 58-venue worldwide portfolio across the U.K., the United States and Germany, including the Orpheum Theatre in San Francisco, the Playhouse Theatre in London’s West End and the Capitol Theater in Düsseldorf.
For more information and to buy tickets for All Aboard festival, visit www.theespee.com.
All products and services featured are independently chosen by editors. However, Billboard may receive a commission on orders placed through its retail links, and the retailer may receive certain auditable data for accounting purposes.
Feeling stressed about getting tickets to Beyoncé’s Renaissance World Tour? Queen Bey is giving the BeyHive plenty of chances to see her on tour, but demand for tickets has already skyrocketed and could get even higher after the Grammys on Sunday, where Beyoncé is up for nine nominations.
Explore
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
The first 40 dates of the tour were announced earlier this week, followed by an additional seven shows in Toronto; Chicago; Washington, D.C.; Atlanta; Houston; Los Angeles; and East Rutherford, N.J. If you want to be in the building for one of the most anticipated tours of 2023 – we’ve rounded up details on when, where and how to get tickets, plus other important info that you might need to know.
Where to Buy Tickets to Beyoncé’s Renaissance Tour
Tickets to the Renaissance Tour are available at Ticketmaster.com and LiveNation.com — but there are a few steps that you’ll need to take first. For starters, you must register as a Verified Fan to score tickets, although registering doesn’t automatically mean that you’ll get them.
Beyoncé Renaissance Tour Tickets
Beyoncé wants to ensure that fans — not resellers — get first dibs on tickets to her tour. According to Ticketmaster, a “lottery-style” process will be used to determine which Verified Fans will receive access codes to purchase tickets while others will be waitlisted. Citi cardmembers can get exclusive access to presale tickets upon registering here until Thursday, Feb. 9. Verified Fan presale tickets will go on sale on Monday (Feb. 6) from 2 p.m. ET until 10 p.m. ET.
Because new dates were announced this week, the Verified Fan registration for Group A ended Friday (Feb. 3) at noon ET. Registration for Group B will be open until next Thursday, Feb. 9, at 11:59 p.m. ET. Group B registration includes shows in Boston, Dallas, Miami, San Francisco, Seattle, Minneapolis and Tampa, Fla.
“Fan demand already exceeds the number of tickets available by more than 800 percent based on the registration numbers in the Group A cities,” reads a statement on the Ticketmaster website. “It is expected that many interested fans may not be able to get tickets because demand drastically exceeds supply.”
Group C registration ends Feb. 16 at 11:59 p.m. ET and includes shows in Charlotte, Detroit, Phoenix, St. Louis, New Orleans, Philadelphia, Louisville, Pittsburgh, Nashville and Kansas City, Mo. Tickets to the Renaissance Tour are also available on Vivid Seats.
How Much Do Beyoncé Tickets Cost?
It’s been six years since Beyoncé’s last jaunt, and judging by her stunning performance in Dubai, the Renaissance Tour will be visually and vocally extravagant.
Although ticket prices vary depending on seat location, based on prices for other major tours, fans can expect to pay around $300 for decent seats — and that’s probably on the lower end of the price spectrum. Luckily, Beyoncé took extra steps so that resellers don’t hike up ticket prices. According to fan posts on TikTok and Twitter, when you attempt to resell tickets, the following notification pops up: “You cannot resell your tickets for higher than the price you paid, including all fees.”
When Does the Renaissance Tour Start?
The Renaissance World Tour launches May 10 in Stockholm, Sweden, and will make stops in London, Paris, Barcelona, Brussels, Cologne, Frankfurt, Amsterdam and other cities overseas until the end of June. The North American leg kicks off in Toronto in July and will hit Chicago, Detroit, Boston, Washington, D.C., Atlanta, Charlotte, Miami, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, St. Louis, Kansas City, San Francisco, Houston and other cities before wrapping in New Orleans on Sept. 27.
Renaissance Tour Merch: Where to Buy
Renaissance tour merch hasn’t dropped on Beyoncé’s website yet, but it’ll probably arrive closer to the start of the tour. In the meantime, fans can cop Beyoncé merch on Amazon and Etsy until the official merch drops online.