Touring
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Five years ago, award-winning electronic music DJ-producer Jesse Rose and hit songwriter-producer Jesse Rogg decided to launch a global agency to represent creative directors. “We just realized that there was no structure to the world of creative direction,” says Rogg. Having previously worked well in the studio together, Rose says they figured they would work just as well as business partners and, in 2018, formed the Original Creative Agency.
Today, OCA represents over 50 creative directors — or “architects,” as Rose and Rogg say — with clients including Beyoncé, Kendrick Lamar, Christina Aguilera, Tame Impala and Steve Lacy. And while the agency’s creatives work across mediums from music videos to styling to album art, looking at the year ahead, the pair predicts the live space will become a much bigger part of business. “Now people are coming to us and asking us to produce their tours, starting from the creative,” says Rose. “Which makes sense because our job is to make a story for a show.”
The two are confident that storytelling — both on and offstage — will be key to 2023’s most successful treks. Rose recalls speaking with Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker ahead of the band’s Slow Rush tour, initially planned in 2020, about how to make the outing feel fresh in 2022. Their solution was to build an entire campaign around the tour. Creative director Ryder Ripps came up with the idea for Rushium, a fictitious pharmaceutical company pushing “rush pills” that appeared on posters, merchandise and the sides of trucks. As for Lamar, the pair praises the way his 2022 Glastonbury headlining set (creative-directed by Mike Carson, along with Lamar and Dave Free) “told a story through movement rather than over-the-top stage design,” relying on two groups of dancers, says Rose. Most effective, he recalls, was the finale, during which Lamar chanted, “Godspeed for women’s rights,” as blood dripped from his thorny crown.
At a time when the live space is more competitive than ever, Rogg adds that such effective campaigning and messaging help set a tour apart — and cites a significant return on investment, too. Plus, adds Rose, the approach has recently helped OCA form relationships with nearly every major agency. “Artists and creatives — the great ones, at least — are always the ones coming up with what’s next,” says Rogg. “So we’re quite mindful of only representing the folks who are those trendsetters. They understand the bigger picture — and not just over one campaign, but across a whole career.”
This story will appear in the Feb. 4, 2023, issue of Billboard.
Over nearly four decades, Billboard Boxscore has charted the biggest tours in the world. From Whitney Houston and Billy Joel in the ‘80s to Bad Bunny and Billie Eilish in 2022, artists have topped Boxscore charts in Vegas theaters, international stadiums, and everything in between.
Most recently, road warrior Elton John broke the record for the highest grossing tour of all time with the Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour, now at $818 million after a brief leg of Australian shows. His tour began in September 2018, was interrupted by COVID for two years, and has returned stronger than ever — and stronger than everyone else.
The updated top 10 tours of all-time include previous record-holders by Ed Sheeran and The Rolling Stones, as well as live legends like Guns N’ Roses and Madonna.
John’s triumphant farewell tour is one of two in the top 10 with post-pandemic results, but more upheaval could be on the way. Still on the road, Coldplay, Harry Styles and previous record-holder Ed Sheeran are marching past the $200 million and $300 million marks with many shows scheduled for this year. And that’s not to mention newly announced 2023 treks by Beyoncé, Metallica, Taylor Swift, and more.
An influx of tours by these artists would not just help to modernize the top 10 but would add dashes of diversity, breaking up a current roster that includes eight tours by male rock acts from the U.K., Ireland and Australia.
Below are the 10 highest-grossing tours in the Boxscore archives, ranked by total earnings, according to figures reported to Billboard Boxscore. All 10 have grossed more than $400 million – who will be next to join the club?
Alejandra Guzmán and Fey are two of the biggest Latin pop icons of the ’90s. For decades, they have maintained a strong presence in Latin pop/rock with their timeless hits. So when the two Mexican powerhouse artists officially announced Thursday (Feb. 2) via an Instagram Live with Billboard that they would be joining forces on tour, fans lost their minds.
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“We are excited, happy to celebrate one more day of life and career,” Alejandra Guzman tells Billboard Latin’s social media manager Ingrid Fajardo. “The truth is that I am very thrilled about this day, to be able to invite everyone into our madness.”
“We are exploding in love, in emotion, in energy, and in music,” adds Fey.
The two idols, who were thrilled to reveal the news live, also mentioned exclusively that they will be releasing a single together very soon, ahead of the tour that kicks off on May 4. “Since we were given the chance to be onstage together, we both know and are clear on who we are,” says Guzmán. “We started to write and flow, we already have two songs together!”
“Hits are eternal. The music becomes eternal when it becomes the public’s,” continues Guzmán, alluding to the name of the upcoming tour.
The “Eternamente Bella” and “Media Naranja” singers will kick off their stint in their native hometown at Arena CDMX; on June 23th they will follow up with a performance at Arena Monterrey in Northern Mexico. After these two homecoming shows, the divas of Mexican pop will announce more dates throughout Latin America. They will also embark on a US tour which will take place in September.
Both women are forces to be reckoned with in Spanish-language pop. Establishing herself as a kitschy electro-pop artist with a buoyant dance flair, Fey rose to stardom with her earwormy eponymous debut in 1995 via Sony Music Mexico. With her breakout LP, she scored a handful of soon-to-be-timeless hits, such as “Gatos en el Balcón,” “La Noche Se Mueve,” and the everlasting “Media Naranja.” Her success kept building into the following decade, where she explored other Latin rhythms, like the pop-reggaetón kiss-off of “No Te Necesito.” To date, she has released a total of eight studio albums. On Sept. 25, 2020, the entertainer celebrated the 25th anniversary of her career with the English-language cut “The Perfect Song,” featuring Paul Oakenfold.
Like the yang to Fey’s yin, in a way, the Mexican Queen of Hearts whipped up a storm with her electrifying pop/rock that was filled with revelry and rebellion with a tinge of seduction. Guzmán broke into the scene with her third album, Eternamente Bella (1990), and she continued to drop gems like Flor de Papel (1991) and Libre (1993) and well into the next decade. With over 30 million albums sold, the Latin Grammy winner is considered one of the most successful Mexican singers.
Tickets for the Eternas Tour go on sale Feb. 8.
WME’s music department has promoted seven to partner and 12 to agent across its global offices in Beverly Hills, New York, Nashville, London and Sydney.
Agents recently promoted to partner are: Dave Bradley (co-head of WME’s pop division based in London, with clients including Dua Lipa, Kim Petras and LCD Soundsystem); Brendan Long (London-based and representing electronic music artists including Richie Hawtin, Eric Prydz and Adam Beyer); Henry Glascock (Nashville-based, with clients including Parker McCollum, Catie Offerman and Randy Rogers Band); Doug Singer (Beverly Hills-based, with clients including Orville Peck, Blood Orange and Vince Staples, also appointed department lead for podcast and book tours); Bradley Rainey (who leads WME’s music for visual media group, with a roster that includes Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, Randy Newman and Max Richter); Levi Jackson (who leads the tour marketing team for all WME clients including Adele, Luke Combs, Travis Scott, Bruno Mars, Foo Fighters and more) and Jared Rampersaud (Beverly Hills-based and working across the agency’s roster, specializing in live performances for private events and brand activations).
Those promoted to agent in contemporary music include Kidder Erdman, Phillip Richard and Henry Delargy in Beverly Hills; Anna Horowitz and Josh Sanchez in New York; Tom Larner in London; and Brendan Moylan in Sydney. In Nashville, Becca Chisholm, Caleb Fenn, Carter Green and Kanan Vitolo became agents in the country music department and Morgan Carney became an agent in Christian music.
“These promotions showcase the breadth of our client roster and how far we can go in servicing our artists,” said Lucy Dickins, WME’s global head of contemporary music and touring, and Becky Gardenhire, co-head of WME’s Nashville office, in a joint statement. “We are so proud of the leadership and ingenuity each of these individuals has demonstrated, and we look forward to what they will achieve.”
Fans in seven cities will get an additional chance to score tickets to Beyoncé‘s long-awaited Renaissance World Tour 2023, as the superstar revealed on Thursday (Feb. 2) a slew of additional shows due to high demand.
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Second shows have been added in Toronto on July 9, Chicago on July 23, East Rutherford on July 30, Washington, DC on August 6, Atlanta on August 12, Los Angeles on September 3 and Houston on September 24.
According to a press release from Live Nation, fan demand has already exceeded the number of available tickets by more than 800% based on current registration numbers. However, even with these added dates, “it is still expected that the majority of interested fans will not be able to get tickets because demand drastically exceeds supply.”
The 48-show global trek will launch in Stockholm on May 10 and feature a mix of stadium and arena shows across Europe through June 27 before picking up in North America at the Rogers Centre in Toronto on July 8; that leg is currently slated to run through a Sept. 27 gig at the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans.
Ticket sales for the Live Nation-promoted tour — produced by Parkwood Entertainment — will kick off with a TM Verified Fan Registration for the North American dates, which is open now and closes at different times based on the city (click here for details on Verified fan and on-sale dates for European shows.) There will also be a Citi presale using Verified Fan as well as a Verizon Up presale.
President Biden urged Congress to “crack down on excessive online concert, sporting event, and other entertainment ticket fees” on Wednesday (Feb. 1), according to a statement from the White House. Biden’s call for action came roughly a week after Live Nation Entertainment faced scathing critiques from both Democratic and Republic senators during a Senate Judiciary hearing.
Speaking with his competition council, Biden said that Congress “should lower the huge service fees that companies like Ticketmaster slap onto tickets for concerts or sporting events that can easily add hundreds of bucks to a family’s night out,” according to The New York Times. “It’s a basic question of fairness,” he added.
President Biden’s interest in curbing ticket fees is part of the Junk Fee Prevention Act, which he discussed with his competition council Wednesday. The act takes aim at four types of excessive fees that cumulatively “cost American consumers billions of dollars a year.”
“Many online ticket sellers impose massive service fees at check-out that are not disclosed when consumers are choosing their tickets,” the White House noted in a statement. These fees make attending live events prohibitively expensive in some cases: “A family of four attending a show could end up paying far more than $100 in fees above and beyond the cost of the tickets.”
As a result, “the President is calling on Congress to prohibit excessive fees, require the fees to be disclosed in the ticket price, and mandate disclosure of any ticket holdbacks that diminish available supply.”
In addition to limiting ticket fees, the Junk Fee Prevention Act also aims to eliminate “airline fees for family members to sit with young children,” “exorbitant early termination fees for TV, phone, and internet service” and “surprise resort and destination fees.”
Ticket fees were just one of several topics that came up during the Senate Judiciary hearing last month, which also explored the Taylor Swift ticket sale fiasco, whether Live Nation bullies its competitors and the extent to which the company acts as a monopoly. Joe Berchtold, Live Nation’s president and chief financial officer, told lawmakers that his company wasn’t as powerful as critics were making out and argued that “ticketing has never been more competitive.”
The hearing almost immediately caused ripples in the live music industry. The following day, Ineffable Music Group announced that it would no longer collect 20% of touring artists’ merchandise sales at the 10 venues it owns or operates. “Any action we can take to help to insure a healthy, vibrant concert ecosystem is important,” Ineffable Music Group CEO Thomas Cussins told Billboard at the time.
Beyoncé released Renaissance, her seventh solo studio album, in July 2022 to rapturous acclaim and No. 1 status on the Billboard 200 and, for lead single “Break My Soul,” No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. But unlike 2016’s Lemonade and 2013’s Beyoncé, there were no concerts and no televised performances — not even a music video.
But six months later, days ahead of a potentially pivotal Grammy ceremony (Feb. 5) where she’s the year’s leading nominee, Beyoncé has announced the Renaissance world tour. It’s bound to be one of the year’s biggest concert events, aiming to be her fourth tour to gross more than $200 million based on forecasts estimated by Billboard Boxscore. In fact, the tour could easily sail past the $275 million mark. The all-stadium trek is currently scheduled to play 41 shows in 10 countries from May 10 through September 27.
A Beyoncé tour used to be a given every couple of years, but the Renaissance world tour will launch seven years after her last solo outing, 2016’s The Formation World Tour. That was her first solo trek in stadiums, though neither the show’s stellar reviews nor fans’ insatiable demand hinted at her rookie status. The tour earned $256.1 million and sold 2.2 million tickets, according to figures reported to Billboard Boxscore, finishing atop Billboard’s year-end Top Tours chart.
In the years since, Beyoncé mounted On the Run II, her second stadium tour alongside Jay-Z following 2014’s On the Run. The stadium trek came close to Beyoncé’s solo high mark but finished with $253.5 million and 2.2 million tickets — coming within 1% of Formation’s gross and 3% of its attendance despite the doubled-up star-power. The strength of Beyoncé’s solo tour among her entire live history perhaps speaks to her unique draw as one of the century’s most singular live entertainers.
The Formation World Tour marked a 21% improvement upon the $212 million take of 2013-14’s The Mrs. Carter Show World Tour, which spanned 126 dates in arenas.
This summer’s Renaissance world tour was announced with 15 shows in Europe in May and June, followed by 26 shows in the U.S. and Canada.
That 41-show sum is slightly shorter than The Formation World Tour’s 49 and On the Run II Tour’s 48. But while Renaissance could trail her previous outings in cumulative gross because of a more compact schedule, that scenario is unlikely considering the industry’s plumped-up ticketing.
In efforts to redirect second-and-third-party ticket sales to the artist, dynamic pricing, platinum ticketing and fan-to-fan re-sale have sent grosses soaring in the post-pandemic era. Beyoncé’s 2016 and 2018 tours averaged $114 and $116 per ticket, but that number will likely be far closer to, if not more than, $200 in 2023.
And like with Billboard’s early projections for Taylor Swift and Madonna, Beyoncé’s initial routing announcement may just be the singer playing coy. Per the first announced round of shows, London is the only market with more than one show, while previous Beyoncé tours also doubled up in New York, Chicago, Paris, Houston and more. More dates could be announced in some of the routing’s open spaces due to expectedly high demand. As the routing stands at press time, there are often four or five days between shows, with long stretches between May 30 (London) and June 8 (Barcelona), and September 2 and 11 (Inglewood, Calif. and Vancouver).
The continental splits for Formation and OTR2 were similar to that of Renaissance, with slightly more than a third of the entire tour in Europe and the other 60-65% in North America. Grosses and attendance lined up, too — $86.9 million and 867,000 tickets in Europe on Formation and $87 million and 871,000 tickets on OTR2, versus $169.1 million and 1.4 million tickets in North America on Formation and $166.5 million and 1.3 million on OTR2.
Given her consistent sell-out stadium business and an expected 30%-plus lift on ticket prices, the Renaissance world tour could be earning $6.8-$7.5 million per show. At the low end of that projection, with no additional shows, total gross would be heading for a personal-best $275 million. With just a few extra shows, at the top of that range, she’d notch her first $300 million tour.
Across her career, Beyoncé has grossed $767.3 million and sold 8.9 million tickets across 375 shows, including those with Jay-Z and the Verizon Ladies First Tour, a co-headline run with Missy Elliott and Alicia Keys in 2004. That means that the Renaissance world tour is setting her up to be one of three women to potentially cross the billion-dollar mark this year. Swift’s Eras Tour is sure to push her over the edge, while P!nk’s Summer Carnival Tour could do the trick as well.
Renaissance was Beyoncé’s seventh No. 1 album, while “Break My Soul” marked her eighth No. 1 song. When album cut “Cuff It” shot to No. 10 on the Hot 100 last month, it became the 21st top 10 Hot 100 song of her solo career. The Renaissance world tour is scheduled to kick off May 10 at Stockholm’s Friends Arena and wrap on September 27 at New Orleans’ Caesars Superdome.
Beyoncé is trending on Twitter. People are posting about their bank accounts and making jokes at Ticketmaster’s expense. The viral “It’s happening!” fire alarm clip from The Office is circulating once again. Could it be? Is it really so?
It is. After keeping fans waiting for months, Beyoncé has finally announced plans to go on tour in support of Renaissance, posting the news on Instagram Wednesday (Feb. 1) with an elegant outtake from the album’s cover shoot. Dates for the trek also went live on the 41-year-old pop star’s website, showing that she’ll kick off the tour in Stockholm on May 10, and will make stops through numerous stadiums and across Europe before moving over to North America.
She’ll then perform at the Rogers Centre in Toronto on July 8, weave her way through the United States and Canada, and close out the North American leg with a Sept. 27 gig at the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans.
Naturally, the tour news has the Beyhive absolutely buzzing with excitement … as well as anxiety. As Taylor Swift and SZA fans could tell you, securing tickets to see big name artists live has never felt so difficult — or expensive — what with issues such as scalpers, bots, dynamic pricing, overcrowded presales and so on.
Many are already tweeting to share their thoughts in anticipation of Bey’s Verified Fan presales, open now for registration in partnership Ticketmaster, who has recently been the target of fan lawsuits and a Senate Judiciary hearing following the platform’s alleged mishandling of Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour presale.
“Ticketmaster watching the beyoncé fans coming after just dealing with taylor fans,” tweeted one fan, sharing a viral clip of Euphoria‘s Cassie, played by Sydney Sweeney, looking absolutely terrified.
“Swifties I need you to explain ticketmaster to me QUICKLY,” tweeted another.
Other Bey fans are more concerned with how much the tickets will set them back financially. “Me at beyonce’s tour after selling my kidney to buy the tickets,” posted one, along with a gif of a model walking down the runway with an IV bag in tow.
The overarching theme of all of their posts, however, is sheer excitement at the chance of seeing Bey live. See some of the best reactions below:
Saddle up because Beyonce is kicking off Black History Month with a bang. Queen Bey took to Instagram early Wednesday morning (Feb. 1) to announce that her long-awaited Renaissance World Tour 2023 will officially kick off this year. The global trek will kick off in Stockholm on May 10 and feature a mix of stadium and arena shows across Europe through June 27 before picking up in North America at the Rogers Centre in Toronto on July 8; that leg is currently slated to run through a Sept. 27 gig at the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans.
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The announcement photo may look familiar to fans, as she donned the same glittery attire on the cover of her seventh studio album. Bey also added “Renaissance World Tour” on her Instagram bio, further accenting the news. Last week, Beyonce performed a full concert for the first time in four years at a luxury resort in Dubai in front of influencers and journalists. The 19-song set included a collaboration with her oldest daughter Blue Ivy as the two performed their Grammy Award Winning record “Brown Skin Girl.”
Crowned a triumphant win by music lovers, Renaissance stormed to No. 1 on the Billboard 200 last year and rattled off two Hot 100 top-ten hits, including her chart-topper “Break My Soul.” The dance-centric album also notched nine Grammy nominations, the most for any nominee for this year’s ceremony. Bey is looking to rack up more trophy wins, as she currently sits at a staggering 28 wins. Nominated for album of the year, song, and record of the year, Bey is facing some stout competition, especially in the former. The R&B juggernaut will tango against Adele, Harry Styles, Kendrick Lamar, Bad Bunny, and more for album of the year. A win in this category would serve as Beyonce’s first. The 65th Grammy Awards will occur Sunday night in Los Angeles at 8 pm EST.
Check out Beyonce’s Instagram post below.
HARD Summer is returning to downtown Los Angeles. The longstanding electronic music festival will happen Aug. 5-6 at a site spread across the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, Exposition Park and BMO Stadium in Downtown Los Angeles.
The event will mark HARD Summer’s return to downtown after a 10-year absence. HARD has strong roots in downtown L.A., launching there in 2008 as an underground warehouse party from longstanding electronic events producer Gary Richards, then growing into downtown’s L.A. State Historic Park amidst the height of the EDM explosion, drawing huge crowds and headliners including Skrillex, deadmau5, Justice and many more.
As electronic music gained a bad reputation in Los Angeles and beyond amidst a flurry of drug-related deaths at electronic festivals including HARD, political red tape pushed events out of the city, with HARD relocating first to Whittier Narrows, then the Pomona Fairplex, then further into the Inland Empire at sites in Fontana and Bakersfield.
By this time, Richards had left HARD, ceding control of the company to Insomniac Events, which currently operates the festival in conjunction with its parent company, Live Nation.
Insomniac Events is also the producer of Electric Daisy Carnival, which itself has roots in downtown Los Angeles, with the first major iterations of EDC happening at the L.A. Memorial Coliseum. This location changed following the death of a 15-year-old girl at Electric Daisy Carnival at the Los Angeles Coliseum in 2010, and the indictment of founder-promoter Pasquale Rotella on felony charges in connection to the venue, sparking EDC’s move to Las Vegas, which has become its spiritual home over the last 12 years. (Rotella was cleared of all felony charges in 2016.)
“We are thrilled to host HARD Summer’s return to Los Angeles as part of our centennial anniversary celebration,” Joe Furin, general manager of the LA Coliseum, says in a statement. “As home to the most iconic events in the world, this festival is an exciting addition to our 100-year history.”
The news indicates a thawing in the relationship between Insomniac and the Coliseum, with Insomniac also promoting the headlining show from Kx5 (Kaskade and deadmau5) that happened there Dec. 10. The show drew 46,000 attendees, making it the biggest ticketed global headliner dance event of 2022.