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Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Richard Blumenthal’s new legislation aims to take on Ticketmaster by clamping down on the use of long-term contracts to lock up the exclusive ticketing rights of U.S. venues and festivals. But it could backfire in a way that would negatively affect venues and fans.
Titled the Unlocking Ticketing Markets Act, the legislation — introduced on the same day as a second bill from Sens. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) and Ted Cruz (R-Texas) that would ban hidden ticket fees — is a clear attempt to break Ticketmaster’s grip on the ticketing industry, although it never actually mentions the Live Nation-owned company by name. (A press release announcing the Unlocking Ticket Markets Act says today’s concert marketplace is dominated “by one company” with a “70-80 percent market share” thanks in part to the long-term contracts its clients sign for its services.) But while Klobuchar and Blumental believe shortening ticketing contracts will promote competition, the proposal doesn’t seem to consider the benefits these contracts offer the venue clients.
Ever since Ticketmaster dethroned Ticketron as the top ticket seller in the 1980s, the company has built its dominance by offering large upfront cash payments in exchange for exclusive deals. This practice has become commonplace from ticketing companies in live entertainment, and venues and sports teams have come to rely on these advances — which can equal hundreds of thousands of dollars for smaller venues and millions of dollars for arenas and stadiums, increasing in value based on the length of the term — that are paid off over the term of the deal through fees added to the face value of each ticket.
This is a bargaining tool the ticketing companies use to acquire more venue customers, but within that, it’s at the venues’ discretion what kind of deal to take, passing the cost of that loan onto their customers as ticketing fees. If venues haven’t repaid the advance at the end of the contract term, they typically have two options: cut a check to the ticketing company to cover the difference or re-up their deal and borrow more money.
Klobuchar and Blumenthal’s bill would essentially shorten the length of the exclusive ticketing contracts by ordering the Federal Trade Commission to “prevent the use of excessively long multi-year exclusive contracts,” according to a press release announcing the proposed legislation. (The text of the Unlocking Ticketing Markets Act is not public, so it’s not clear how “excessively long” is defined, though average ticketing contracts are about five to six years.) If the FTC opted to limit ticketing to half of the average terms, Ticketmaster’s competitors would have twice as many opportunities to bid for those contracts the company holds.
Shorter contracts would either mean less money for venues, or greater risk that they would fail to repay the advances — in which case venues would either need to repay the remaining balance or negotiate that debt into a contract renewal. For example, a temporary four-month downturn in business is going to have a greater impact on a two-year, $2 million loan than it would on a four-year, $4 million loan. To protect themselves, ticketing companies would likely increase the fees added to tickets to recoup faster, thereby reducing the heightened risk of default — likely meaning higher costs to consumers.
A bill focused on contract length also fails to address long-standing complaints that venues often work with Ticketmaster because of a perception that it means parent company Live Nation will bring more events to their building. This sort of business practice is prohibited under the consent decree that has governed Live Nation and Ticketmaster’s operations since merging in 2010, but that hasn’t stopped accusations of anticompetitive behavior. While Live Nation has long denied this charge, during a January Senate Judiciary hearing probing Ticketmaster’s botched sale for Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour, Sens. Klobuchar and Blumenthal indicated they believed that Ticketmaster’s relationship with Live Nation was the main reason Ticketmaster held a such a large market share of the ticketing business. Term lengths of the company’s contracts, however, were rarely mentioned.
In response to the introduction of the Unlocking Ticketing Markets Act, a Ticketmaster spokesperson told Billboard, “The ticketing industry is more competitive than ever. Ticketmaster wins business because it offers the best product available for venues, and the length of contracts is generally decided by venues and the guaranteed payments they want to help support their expenses. We do not expect any of the proposed changes to have a material impact on our business as we historically add clients in competitive marketplaces.”
Changing the terms of those loans, as Klobuchar and Blumenthal seek to do by limiting exclusive ticketing deals, could either cause venues to earn less money on the ticketing deals or increase the fees they charge consumers to repay those loans — making ticket prices even more expensive in a climate where most Americans already feel they’re paying too much.
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Happy birthday, Willie Nelson! The country legend turns 90 on Saturday (April 29), and he’s planning to celebrate in a major way.
The singer-songwriter will take the stage for a 90th birthday concert celebration at the Hollywood Bowl Saturday and Sunday (April 30). The concert will feature performances from George Straight, Sheryl Crow, Beck, Dave Matthews, Snoop Dogg, Gary Clark Jr., Leon Bridges, Jack Johnson, Miranda Lambert, Neil Young, Norah Jones, The Chicks, The Avett Brothers, Tyler Childers and other special guests.
Chelsea Handler, Jennifer Garner, Owen Wilson, Woody Harrelson, Hellen Mirren, Gabriel Iglesias, Ethan Hawke will make an appearance at the concert. Click here to purchase tickets.
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Nelson will be touring all over the country until October, according to the dates listed on his website. After the Hollywood Bowl, he is billed to perform at the McGrath Amphitheater in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, on May 17. The “On the Road Again” singer has eight shows booked for the month of May and five shows in June, including the Outlaw Fest and Summer Camp Music Festival.
This summer, Nelson will host the Willie Neilson 4th of July Picnic in Texas. The event, featuring the country star, Childers, Dwight Yoakam and Shakey Graves will be held at Austin’s Q2 Stadium on July 4. Tickets are priced at around $49-$57 and up at Vivid Seats, StubHub, Seat Geek and Ticketmaster.
Willie Nelson 4th of July Picnic
$57
Whether you plan on attending the Hollywood Bowl concert or 4th of July Picnic, there’s one item that’s perfect for outdoor concerts, festivals, tailgating, barbecues and more.
Last year, Nelson teamed with Igloo for a limited collection of Playmate coolers available in a larger, 14-quart size, and a miniature 7-quart cooler. The larger cooler ($59.99) sold out, but the smaller option ($39.99) is still in stock, along with the Willie Nelson Stainless Steel Coolmate, which is on sale for just $19.
Shop the Willie Nelson x Igloo Coolers collection below.
Igloo
Willie Nelson Playmate 7 Qt. Cooler
$39.99
Igloo
Willie Nelson Americana 12 Oz. Stainless Steel Coolmate
$19.99 $24.99 20% off
Two new bills introduced to the Senate Wednesday aim to clean up the ticketing industry and address long-standing criticisms about Ticketmaster’s dominance over the primary ticketing market.
The TICKET ACT, introduced by Sens. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) and Ted Cruz (R-Texas) — chair and ranking member of Chair of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, respectively — would ban hidden ticket fees, requiring vendors to display the total price of a ticket up front. These fees can sometimes increase the purchase price by as much as 60% or higher. For example, some tickets in the upper seating section for Luke Combs‘ current stadium tour being sold by Ticketmaster are marked up more than 100% when fees and taxes are added to the face value.
The bill would also attempt to reign in speculative ticket sales, a heavily criticized sales technique used by ticket scalpers to maximize profits. Speculative ticket selling is the practice of selling a ticket one does not own, often at the height of the market, and then waiting until the price drops to procure and deliver the ticket to the consumer. The TICKET ACT would require scalpers to display in a “clear and conspicuous manner” that the ticket seller does not actually possess the ticket at the time the ticket is listed for sale.
Recent ticketing legislation proposals by both Live Nation and the National Independent Talent Organization have called for a ban of speculative ticketing – with several prominent music industry executives comparing the practice to fraud.
The other bill, the Unlocking Ticketing Markets Act, was presented by longtime Ticketmaster critics Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), seeking to limit the use and scope of exclusive multi-year ticketing contracts in live entertainment. The legislation is aimed at Ticketmaster, which “by some estimates has locked up 70 to 80 percent market share and has used its dominance to pressure venues to agree to ticketing contracts that last up to ten years, insulating it from competition,” explains a press release from Klobuchar’s office announcing the legislation.
It follows a January Senate Judiciary Committee hearing probing the cause of the Ticketmaster Taylor Swift crash. During the hearing, Ticketmaster was regular criticized by the committee for the company’s dominate market share of the U.S. ticketing industry, with several senators accusing the company of acting like a monopoly.
The Unlocking Ticketing Markets Act would empower “the Federal Trade Commission to prevent the use of excessively long multi-year exclusive contracts that lock out competitors, decrease incentives to innovate new services, and increase costs for fans.”
The text of the Unlocking Ticketing Markets Acts has not yet been released to the public and it’s unclear how the bill would define excessively long contracts. In a press release announcing the legislation, Klobuchar’s office noted that some exclusive ticketing contracts last as long as ten years, but the average contract term in sports and live entertainment is typically five to seven years, according to multiple sources, including the often-cited Ticketmaster vs. Tickets.com lawsuit from 2003.
During my first visit to New Orleans for Jazz Fest many years ago, I experienced a profound moment that changed everything for me. The best way to describe it would be the sensation of deja-vu; like I had been here before, or more specifically that I had returned “home.” That day, the city spoke to me, and thankfully I heeded the call.
Shortly after that auspicious Jazz Fest, New Orleans became my home, and I’ve worked in the music industry here since then — at WWOZ, at Tipitina’s, in the classrooms of Tulane and with so many of our city’s talented artists. This city has provided me with a sense of purpose, a feeling of belonging, and a community of like-minded folks who share the same passion for music. It’s also given me the foundation for a meaningful life.
But the same elements that spoke so deeply to me — our rich cultural heritage and vibrant music scene — often go hand-in-hand with the city’s reputation for partying. It’s a story with which the music industry, my industry, is all too familiar, and one that often leads to addiction.
Addiction is a particularly serious issue in the music world. A 2020 study by Tulane’s Graduate School of Social Work paints a staggering picture: 56% of music industry professionals cite problematic substance use, and 80% met the cut-off for serious or moderate mental health concerns — both far above any national average.
Bill Taylor
Singer-songwriter Anders Osbourne, my good friend who helped me find the path to sobriety after I bottomed out with drugs and alcohol, had an idea about how to tackle this within the music industry. Together, we created “Send Me A Friend,” a national network of sober individuals who were “on call” to support struggling musicians and industry professionals at their gigs.
The effort was an overnight success, with more people asking for help and wanting to volunteer than we could handle. Anders and I wondered what it would take to create a cultural shift so that sobriety was embraced, supported and celebrated on a larger scale?
Our vision is shared by The Phoenix, a national sober community that embraces connection through a shared, active lifestyle that enhances and helps maintain each other’s recovery journeys. During the pandemic, we joined forces with them with a mission of creating sober-supportive change in the music space.
Today, we’re blown away to see how this movement has progressed all the way to a New Orleans institution: JazzFest. This year, I’ll be there alongside The Phoenix and Stand Together Foundation at the 1 Million Strong Wellness Retreat, a sober-supportive wellness lounge where festival attendees can relax between sets, enjoy mocktail happy hours and meet up with people in recovery and others to catch performances together.
And this isn’t about making the festival sober. It’s about giving people an opportunity to bring their whole selves to the festival, free of shame and fear. Together, we can transform the way people think about addiction by supporting new ways for sober fans to enjoy shows, ensuring touring musicians and crews have access to resources on the road, and engaging in conversations about sobriety that are free from shame and stigma and full of possibilities.
I’m proud of how far we’ve come in changing the way we approach recovery and sobriety, turning it into a celebration of inclusivity and togetherness. At this year’s Jazz Fest, we’ll continue to change the landscape not only for those who work in the music industry, but also for our audience members who want a way to engage and enjoy all this beautiful city has to offer while feeling safe, supported, and connected.
Bill Taylor is the director of music programs and strategy at The Phoenix, where he leads music activations all over the country and works with the Stand Together team on the 1 Million Strong campaign.
New Oreleanians traveling along US Route 90 may not suspect that the revered Caesars Superdome is on the cusp of a renaissance.
Since 2020, the nearly 50-year-old stadium has been going through a $450 million renovation, scheduled to conclude by the end of next year. According to Evan Holmes, general manager at Caesars Superdome, Smoothie King Center and Louisiana Stadium & Exposition District (LSED) Properties for ASM Global, as the Louisiana State University Tigers exited the building having clinched their fourth national football championship earlier this April, contractors were making their way in to pop off old ceiling tiles and get to work.
The multi-phase, multi-year renovation has been moving forward since then — with minimal impact on events at the nearly 75,000-capacity venue — as the Superdome’s managers look to improve the guest experience and modernize amenities, without replacing the building’s architectural characteristics.
“A lot of communities would kill to have something like [the Superdome], let alone something like this, for 50 years,” says Holmes.
The exterior of the Superdome will remain unchanged, while the interior concourse is being expanded. Roughly 80,000 sq. ft. of ramps on each level – previously used for ingress and egress – are being pulled out and replaced with staircases to make wider concourses, with enhanced food and beverage options, more restrooms and better merchandise stations. The building has new field level suites that open to the endzone — “If [New Orleans Saints running back] Alvin Kamra scores a touchdown, he’s liable to jump on your lap,” says Holmes — and a field level club for games and private events, eight viewing decks with standing room overlooking the field with up-to-date ADA accommodations. So far, the East side of the building has undergone its renovations — and, by the 2024 Saints season, the West side will be completed, with new grab-and-go concessions and a new atrium.
Working behind the walls for four years is a herculean task, but pales in comparison to the cost of a new NFL stadium. (The NFL’s newest stadiums, Allegiant in Las Vegas and SoFi in Los Angeles — both opened in 2020 — have cost roughly $2 billion and $5 billion, respectively). The $450 million renovations are being funded by the State of Louisiana, the LSED and the New Orleans Saints, subsequent to the team’s new lease agreement. By not closing the venue for renovations, the Superdome will hold on to valued college football events like the Sugar Bowl and the Bayou Classic, as well as Essence Fest, which brings half a million attendees to New Orleans.
Gensler/Trahan Architects
If you’re building a new stadium, “you’re missing those big, high-impact events in the market. So, the hotels aren’t having that content, the restaurants don’t have [that content],” says Holmes. “There’s a cascading list of reasons why it makes sense for us not to take the building down.”
In addition to keeping tenants and established events, updating the building means hanging on to “the skin,” as Holmes calls it, of the storied venue. The Superdome has hosted seven Super Bowls, as well as concerts from The Jacksons, Johnny Cash and June Carter, Aretha Franklin, Jimmy Buffet, Willie Nelson, Al Green, The Temptations, The Rolling Stones, Prince, Whitney Houston, KISS, Paul McCartney, Beyoncé, Taylor Swift and many more legendary artists.
Holmes explains that the renovation is not to change the look of the Superdome or generate exorbitant amounts of money for the team, but to make a better overall experience for fans. “You’re competing for these big events and we think the Superdome, especially after this renovation, can do all the things that these other buildings can do operationally,” he says. “It may not have all the brand-new bells and whistles that they may have, but functionally we can do it all. We’ve got character that other buildings wish they had.”
Caesars Superdome will once again host the Super Bowl in 2025 (it was originally scheduled to host the 2024 Bowl, but the schedule conflicted with New Orleans’ world-renowned Mardi Gras), just as the building celebrates its 50th anniversary. “It’s not just a football stadium,” says Holmes. “It means a lot of things to a lot of people, so we want to celebrate that.”
Live Nation’s new destination festival company Vibee has partnered with LN-owned dance promoter Insomniac to launch Tiësto | ‘Chasing Sunsets’ taking place Nov. 9-12 in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.
Headlined and curated by Dutch DJ and dance legend Tiësto, the four-day event will include multiple performances from the Grammy Award-winning artist along with sets from yet-to-be announced acts, plus beach activities, local cultural excursions and more.
The weekend’s home base and headline venue will be ME Cabo, a five-star resort located on the beach, near the marina in Cabo San Lucas. Guests heading to ‘Chasing Sunsets’ will also be met with pool parties, exclusive cocktail parties, a special “Drive into Sunset” set by Tiësto and additional weekend events at Cabo hot spots Mango Deck, Funky Geisha, Taboo and SUR. Attendees can customize their getaway with high-end add-ons including a “Taste of Mexico Brunch” with Tiësto, boat parties, jet skiing, parasailing and tequila tastings.
Tiësto | ‘Chasing Sunsets’ will be the first of many collaborations between Vibee and Insomniac, which celebrates its 30th anniversary this year.
“Through their exclusive worldwide agreement to produce customized experiences and festival integrations, Insomniac and Vibee will bring even more unique events to their communities and amplify the fan-to-artist connection,” a press release announcing the partnership explains.
More information on packages and pricing can be found here.
After releasing his third studio album, Since I Have a Lover, 6LACK is ready to hit the road after announcing his colossal world tour Tuesday (April 25).
Slated for the fall, the Since I Have a Lover World Tour will kick off its North America trek on Oct. 1. The 40-plus date jaunt will span across the nation in cities such as New York, Los Angeles and Philadelphia before concluding in Atlanta on Nov. 24 at the State Farm Arena. His Spillage Village teammate Mereba will open for him on select dates. Other guests include Spinall and Sabodi.
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Then in February, 6LACK will embark on the European leg of his tour, touching down in Germany, Denmark and Belgium. On social media, 6LACK celebrated the announcement by saying, “The most special one so far, 5 years since the last trip & telling the story from FREE 6LACK to EALL to now.”
Produced by Live Nation, the artist presale for the Since I Have a Lover Tour will go live from April 26 through April 28 at 10 a.m. local time, and then tickets for the general public go on sale immediately after. VIP packages are also available, including meet-and-greets with 6LACK, premium tickets, exclusive merch items and early entry. Fans can visit the Live Nation website for more information.
Check out the tour dates below:
October 1, 2023 – Portland, OR @ Alaska Airlines’ Theater of the Clouds **
October 4, 2023 – Vancouver, BC @ PNE Forum **
October 5, 2023 – Seattle, WA @ WAMU Theater **
October 7, 2023 – San Francisco, CA @ The Masonic **
October 10, 2023 – Los Angeles, CA @ YouTube Theater **
October 12, 2023 – San Diego, CA @ SOMA **
October 13, 2023 – Phoenix, AZ @ The Van Buren **
October 15, 2023 – Salt Lake City, UT @ The Complex **
October 17, 2023 – Denver, CO @ Fillmore Auditorium (Denver) **
October 19, 2023 – St. Louis, MO @ The Pageant *
October 21, 2023 – Dallas, TX @ The Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory *
October 22, 2023 – Austin, TX @ Stubb’s Waller Creek Amphitheater *
October 25, 2023 – Houston, TX @ Bayou Music Center *
October 26, 2023 – New Orleans, LA @ The Fillmore New Orleans *
October 31, 2023 – Minneapolis, MN @ The Fillmore Minneapolis *
November 1, 2023 – Chicago, IL @ Byline Bank Aragon Ballroom *
November 2, 2023 – Detroit, MI @ The Fillmore Detroit *
November 5, 2023 – New York, NY @ Manhattan Center Hammerstein Ballroom *
November 6, 2023 – Brooklyn, NY @ Great Hall – Avant Gardner *
November 8, 2023 – Washington, DC @ The Anthem *
November 10, 2023 – Boston, MA @ MGM Music Hall at Fenway *
November 11, 2023 – Montreal, QC @ MTELUS *
November 13, 2023 – Toronto, ON @ HISTORY *
November 16, 2023 – Philadelphia, PA @ The Fillmore Philadelphia *
November 18, 2023 – Raleigh, NC @ The Ritz *
November 19, 2023 – Charlotte, NC @ The Fillmore Charlotte *
November 21, 2023 – Orlando, FL @ Hard Rock Live Orlando *
November 22, 2023 – Miami, FL @ Kaseya Center *
November 24, 2023 – Atlanta, GA @ State Farm Arena *
February 12, 2024 – Dublin, Ireland @ 3Olympia Theatre #
February 14, 2024 – Glasgow, United Kingdom @ O2 Academy Glasgow #
February 15, 2024 – Manchester, United Kingdom @ O2 Apollo #
February 17, 2024 – Birmingham, United Kingdom @ O2 Academy Birmingham #
February 18, 2024 – London, United Kingdom @ Eventim Apollo #
February 20, 2024 – Paris, France @ Bataclan #
February 21, 2024 – Cologne, Germany @ Live Music Hall #
February 22, 2024 – Brussels, Belgium @ Ancienne Belgique #
February 25, 2024 – Amsterdam, Netherlands @ Melkweg #
February 27, 2024 – Berlin, Germany @ Huxley’s Neue Welt #
February 29, 2024 – Copenhagen, Denmark @ Amager Bio #
March 1, 2024 – Stockholm, Sweden @ Berns #
March 3, 2024 – Oslo, Norway @ Rockefeller Music Hall #
Shows supported by special guest *
Show dates supported by Mereba **
Show dates supported by Spinall and Sadboi #
Concert promoter Goldenvoice of AEG Presents has re-upped its partnership with the historic Santa Barbara Bowl, extended its booking contract through 2032, company officials tell Billboard.
Built in the 1930s under the federal Work Projects Administration as part of President Franklin Roosevelt‘s New Deal, the sandstone-kissed 4,500-seat open-air rock and roll coliseum has hosted concerts by the likes of Bob Marley, James Taylor, Stevie Wonder and more.
Since the early 1990s, the Bowl has been managed by the not-for-profit Santa Barbara Bowl Foundation and programed by long-time talent buyer Moss Jacobs. For most of the 1990s, Jacobs was aligned with concert promoter Goldenvoice, which held the booking contract until the 2001 purchase of Goldenvoice by AEG. Jacobs left Goldenvoice that year and joined Nederlander Concerts as a vp of booking, bringing the booking rights to the bowl with him. In 2016, he quit Nederlander and went back to Goldenvoice, where he works as a Goldenvoice senior vp. Following his 2016 exit, the foundation exercised a key man clause in its contract with Nederlander, allowing it to end its deal and hand booking rights back to Goldenvoice.
“The Santa Barbara Bowl Foundation has been a vital partner,” states Jacobs, “helping Goldenvoice to foster incredible talent at one of the finest outdoor venues in the world. The Foundation understands the significance of partnering with a substantial national organization to benefit this amazing local community. This contract will allow us to build on the foundation of past great events to improve the already amazing stature of the Santa Barbara Bowl.”
Santa Barbara Bowl Foundation executive director Rick Boller said he was “thrilled to sign this booking agreement with Goldenvoice for another decade.” Since taking over management of the facility, the foundation has helped raise over $43 million for capital improvements at the Bowl.
Frank Ocean’s decision to cancel his second of two performances at Coachella this weekend will likely cost the festival several million dollars, sources tell Billboard — losses that the festival will try to offset, in part, with finding new uses for the giant ice pad the company created for Ocean’s long-awaited performance.
A source close to the situation tells Billboard that festival promoter Goldenvoice is trying to make the best out of the millions of dollars spent on building a giant ice pad that was supposed to accommodate over 100 skaters during Ocean’s set last Sunday night but was scrapped at the last minute after the artist suffered an ankle injury. The ice pad cannot be used as a public ice rink, the source says, but the Goldenvoice team is working out how to incorporate it into another yet-to-be determined performance.
Ocean was to be paid $4 million for each of his two Coachella performances, for a total of $8 million, sources say. Since Ocean is not performing for the second weekend, he will only be paid for the first weekend’s performance. Goldenvoice, however, will still need to pay Blink-182 that same $4 million rate for their replacement one-hour headlining set on Sunday, sources say, and will also need to pay the newly announced Skrillex, Four Tet and Fred again.. combo for their closing set.
Typically, festival promoters pay an artist a performance rate and also cover basic production needs such as staging, sound, lighting and video boards. The artists will cover all additional production elements from their fee that are unique to their performance such as musicians, dancers, performers and other major visual elements.
In Ocean’s case, however, the most expensive part of his production — the custom ice pad— was built by Goldenvoice and came with significant energy costs. So, while Goldenvoice had planned to recoup that cost from his performance fees, sources say the production costs Ocean racked up exceed the $4 million he earned for the first weekend. That means Ocean failed to turn a profit from his Coachella appearance and that the festival will have to eat the remaining loss — for which it is highly unlikely to demand repayment.
Ocean also racked up about $45,000 in curfew fines during his set, which played 25 minutes past the mandatory midnight curfew imposed by Indio, California, city officials. However, a source close to Ocean says those fines are Goldenvoice’s fault, claiming Ocean’s set started an hour late because festival staff took an additional 50 minutes to change over the stage from Bjork’s set to Ocean’s set.
Despite the curfew fines, which added up to $133,000 over the weekend, according to officials with the city of Indio, the millions of dollars spent on an unused ice sheet and extra talent costs, Goldenvoice is still likely to make a profit from the festival. In an average year, Coachella grosses more than $115 million in ticket sales across both weekends and makes tens of millions more in food, beverage and hospitality.
Coachella’s second weekend kicks off Friday (April 21) in Indio.
Following a four-month hiatus, Coldplay returned to the stage in March to extremely efficient effect. Despite playing just three Brazilian markets, the band still compiled numbers large enough to secure honors as the top-grossing live act of the month. According to figures reported to Blilboard Boxscore, the British act earned $65.4 million and sold 736,000 tickets between March 10 and March 28.
That eye-popping total was amassed from $40.1 million over six shows in Sao Paulo, $8.1 million from two shows in Curitiba and $17.2 million across three dates in Rio de Janeiro.
The slate of stadium concerts in Sao Paulo marks the seventh-largest engagement in Boxscore history, both in terms of gross and paid attendance. Further, that run helps Coldplay become the third consecutive act to simultaneously lead Top Tours and Top Boxscores, following fellow Brits Elton John in January and Ed Sheeran in February.
The Brazil shows averaged $5.9 million and 67,000 tickets per show, in step with previous legs in the U.S. ($5.7 million; 53,200 tickets) and Europe ($6.4 million; 66,400 tickets). But it’s a boost from previous plays in Latin America.
Coldplay opened the tour with shows March and April 2022 in Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, and Mexico, pacing $4.1 million and 52,600 tickets. The band returned last September for concerts in Argentina, Chile, Colombia and Peru, running $4.6 million and 58,900 tickets per show. The Brazil run marks a 30% bump from the previous South American lap.
March is Coldplay’s second month at No. 1 on Top Tours. The band’s first trip to the top was last July with almost identical totals, when they grossed $66.7 million and sold 730,000 tickets. The 736,000 haul this month is the second-biggest monthly attendance count, only behind Sheeran’s 750,000 in June 2022.
In total, the Music of the Spheres Tour has grossed $407.7 million and sold more than 4.5 million tickets since launching in March 2022, approaching the all-time top 10 in both metrics. The band’s previous tour, the A Head Full of Dreams Tour (2016-17), sits at No. 7 on the historical ranking, with $523.3 million and sold 5.4 million tickets.
The Music of the Spheres Tour resumes in May in Europe before returning to North America in September. With close to 40 scheduled shows left to play, the entire run could be heading toward the all-time top five with more than $600 million in the bank and six million tickets sold.
Sheeran backs off from No. 1 in February to No. 2 in March, adding $43.1 million and 409,000 tickets for The Mathematics Tour. He is followed by Harry Styles at No. 3, enjoying his seventh consecutive month in the top five.
It’s the fifth month with an all-British top three since Billboard launched the monthly rankings in February 2019. All five of those occurrences have featured at least one of this month’s leaders, with Sheeran participating in four of those sweeps.
SZA is No. 4 with $23.2 million and more than 150,000 tickets on the SOS Tour. Matching Carrie Underwood last month and Karol G in October, it’s the highest rank for a female artist in more than a year based on reported figures. The only women to reach higher since returning from the pandemic were Billie Eilish, Reba McEntire and Alanis Morissette, each hitting No. 3 in February 2022, January 2022, and September 2021, respectively.
Much ado was made of the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ double-duty in February, appearing twice in Top Tours’ top 10 – once by themselves and once with co-headliner Post Malone. A version of that phenomenon happens on March’s Top Boxscores ranking, as Billy Joel hits No. 27 on Top Boxscores with his latest Madison Square Garden concert, but also No. 6 with co-headliner Stevie Nicks. The first date of their brief collaborative tour earned $10.9 million at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, Calif. Both acts have further scheduled dates separately and together.
Coldplay’s dominance extends to the venue charts. Sao Paulo’s Estadio do Morumbi, home of their mammoth six-show run, is the top-grossing venue of the month, No. 1 on the ranking for venues with a capacity of 15,001 or more, but out-grossing every venue on the other capacity-specific charts as well. Estadio Nilton Santos, the band’s Rio de Janeiro stadium, follows on the 15,001+ ranking at No. 7.
T-Mobile Arena (Las Vegas) and Madison Square Garden (New York) follow at Nos. 2-3, leading the month for arenas. Las Vegas scores No. 1 rankings on the 10,001-15k chart with MGM Grand Garden ($6.8 million) and 5,001-10k list with Dolby Live ($13.5 million).
The tally for venues with a capacity of 5,000 or less is led by Morsani Hall at the Straz Center for the Performing Arts in Tampa, Fla., earning $6.7 million from 26 shows during March. Vegas’ Resorts World Theatre follows at No. 2 ($5.2 million), giving Sin City a top two rank on all four venue charts.
