Touring
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LONDON — For live music executives, Monday’s (Oct. 24) appointment of Rishi Sunak as Liz Truss’ successor as U.K.’s prime minister brings a sense of urgency as the sector struggles to recover to full health after the devastating impact of the pandemic.
They are calling for Sunak, who served in Boris Johnson’s government as Chancellor of the Exchequer and will become the U.K.’s first British-Asian prime minister, to swiftly cut the sales tax rate charged on U.K. ticket purchases from the current 20% VAT to 5%.
At the height of the pandemic, Sunak lowered VAT rates to 5% to try and help boost advance sales. The tax cut lasted for eight months, before rising to 12.5% last October and then returning to its pre-pandemic level of 20% on April 1.
Live execs say that cutting VAT back to 5% will encourage ticket sales at a time when many people in the U.K. are experiencing a drastic reduction in disposable income due to soaring food and energy prices. Last month, inflation hit a 40-year high of 10.1% in the United Kingdom.
Jon Collins, CEO of U.K. live music industry association LIVE, says he hopes Sunak’s experience in the Treasury office “leaves him well placed to recognize the economic stimulus that would follow” a reduction in VAT on ticket sales. “Safeguarding gigs, festivals and venues while encouraging additional activity will bring benefits to town and city centers across the U.K.,” says Collins.
An immediate priority for the new prime minister — who officially takes up his post on Tuesday, following a meeting with King Charles III — will be restoring confidence in the financial markets, following Truss’ disastrously brief reign.
Last month, the pound fell to a record low against the U.S. dollar in the aftermath of Kwasi Kwarteng’s Sept. 23 mini budget, which spooked investors with its unfunded tax cuts — something Sunak warned about when he unsuccessfully competed in an earlier Conservative Party leadership contest this summer. Truss sacked Kwarteng as Chancellor on Oct. 14, precipitating her downfall. Almost all the tax measures he introduced have since been scrapped.
Sunak, a former hedge fund partner who married the daughter of an Indian billionaire, won the prime minister role after Johnson announced on Sunday he would not be running for the position. On Monday, Sunak’s only other rival, Penny Mordaunt, pulled out of the contest shortly before votes from members of Parliament (MPs) were due to be announced.
The markets calmed Monday with sterling broadly unchanged against the dollar and government borrowing costs falling as the interest rate on bonds dropped to 3.8%. (The rate was 5.17% in late September.)
“There is no doubt we face a profound economic challenge,” Sunak, one of Westminster’s wealthiest politicians, said in a televised address. “We now need stability and unity, and I will make it my utmost priority to bring our party and our country together.”
Michael Kill CEO of The Night Time Industries Association (NTIA), which represents more than 1,400 U.K. nightclubs and venues, says he will judge the incoming prime minister on his “actions not words.”
Kill says he hoped Sunak can “can address the current instability, uncertainty and begin a journey to build back consumer confidence for nighttime economy and hospitality businesses.” He echoed live executives’ demands for a cut to VAT and called for an extension on business rates relief (taxes payable on business premises, such as record shops and music venues). “Independent businesses will not survive without it,” Kill says.
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.The 2022 leg of Harry Styles‘ Love On Tour is already shaping up to be a mega-successful jaunt — and it’s not over yet. Styles, who kicked off the North American installment of his tour in August, will continue his two-week, mini-residency at the Kia Forum in Inglewood, Calif., on Monday (Oct. 24).
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For the Stylers who are willing to pay a little more to see the “As It Was” singer live, we’ve rounded up some of the places that you can buy tickets online without spending an arm and a leg. Styles will head back to Europe in 2023 for another leg of the tour, Live Nation announced Aug. 26. Back in May, Styles added a handful of additional shows in New York City and Los Angeles and, of course, tickets sold out quickly. Styles also added a handful of additional dates to his Los Angeles concerts, bringing the tally to 15 shows. His string of shows at the Kia Forum will be held from Oct. 23 until Nov. 15.
Currently, tickets for Styles’ Love On Tour are available at Seat Geek starting at around $91 and approximately $80 on StubHub (prices may fluctuate depending on availability and the date of the show). You can also find passes on Vivid Seats for around $87 and up, depending on location and date. Select dates are still available at Ticketmaster, but expect to pay around $300 and up.
Harry Styles Love On Tour Tickets
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The first European leg of the Love On Tour, promoting Styles’ third studio album, Harry’s House, kicked off June 11 at Ibrox Stadium in Glasgow, Scotland. Styles hit Toronto in mid-August before making his way to Madison Square Garden for a mini-residency that will run until Sept. 21.
Harry’s House was released March 20 and debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with an impressive 521,000 units sold in its first week. In wake of the horrific school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, in May, Styles and his tour sponsor, Live Nation, announced that they will donate $1 million to the Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund, an educational, research and litigation arm of the largest gun violence prevention organization in the country.
“Along with all of you, I have been absolutely devastated by the recent string of mass shootings in America, culminating at Robb Elementary School in Texas,” said Styles at the time. “On our North American tour, we will be partnering with Everytown who work to end gun violence, donating to support their efforts, and sharing their suggested action items.”
Looking for gear to celebrate Styles’ new album and wear to the Love On Tour? Be sure to read our list of the best gifts for Harry Styles fans.
A Harry Styles concert is what Beatlemania must have felt like.
For the 17,000 people at the singer’s opening Love on Tour concert in Los Angeles on Sunday night (Oct. 23) — many of whom were certainly not alive in the 1960s — the eardrum-rupturing screams and cries as the 28-year-old superstar walked on stage brought up a sweet nostalgia for the rock n’ roll days of the past.
Dressed in an orange and white suit, embellished with sparkling palm trees, Styles introduced his 15-night run at the Kia Forum with the Harry’s House fan favorite, “Daydreaming.”
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The Grammy winner then delivered an hour-and-a-half set list (below) of career-spanning hits, from his debut album’s “Kiwi” and Fine Line‘s “Adore You” to his third studio LP’s hits like “Music for a Sushi Restaurant,” “Cinema,” “Late Night Talking” and many more. While the set lists have evolved over Styles’ tours, one thing remains the same — the glitter-dressed fans singing every word so loud that you can barely hear Harry, waving their feather boas in the air and dancing freely with their fellow concert attendees.
Notably, Styles didn’t perform the Harry’s House track, “Boyfriends,” but thankfully, opening act Ben Harper took on the poignant ballad, as he played guitar on the original recording. “I’ve recorded in a lot of different environments with a lot of different people, and this stands out as one of the most exciting and gratifying sessions I’ve ever done,” Harper told Billboard of recording the track. “[Songwriter] Kid Harpoon and Harry, they were very patient. We went in and kept throwing ideas and, finally, I just tried one idea that really stuck.”
“I try not to put expectations on a crowd, lay them all on my shoulders. I walk up there and just give everything. Be well enough rehearsed to have a lot of fun,” Harper added of his set, which also featured both his children joining him onstage to perform. “It’s got to be fun or I should be doing something else.”
Styles wrapped up his high-energy set with a jam-packed encore, and with two songs left of the show, the singer noticed a couple heading out of the arena to try and beat the Los Angeles traffic. “We’re not finished! Go back!” Styles jokingly shouted at them, and the duo (now on the jumbotron) followed the star’s orders and went back to their chairs. “We’ve got two songs left, back to your seats! We can see you sneaking out. I’m not done!”
And while the playful interaction, of course, was just a display of Styles’ goofy sense of humor, his declaration of “I’m not done” struck a chord as he delved straight into his 15-week Billboard Hot 100 chart topper, “As It Was.” For Styles, singing to sold-out crowds in the country’s biggest and most iconic arenas, it’s clear that nothing is, in his own words, “the same as it was.” His career is also the furthest thing from “done.” In fact, it’s just the beginning for Harry Styles.
See Styles’ full set list below, and check out how to snag tickets for his upcoming Los Angeles shows here.
DaydreamingGoldenAdore YouDaylightKeep DrivingMatildaLittle FreakSatelliteCinemaMusic for a Sushi RestaurantTreat People With KindnessWhat Makes You BeautifulLate Night TalkingWatermelon SugarLove of My Life
Encore:Sign of the TimesMedicineAs It WasKiwi
Elle King will kick off 2023 in a big way. Not only will her debut country project, Come Get Your Wife, release Jan. 27, but she will bring her music to fans starting Feb. 14 with her headlining Elle King A-Freakin-Men Tour, presented by Low and Slow.
The nearly 30-city tour will launch in New Orleans on Valentine’s Day, with Red Clay Strays opening the shows.
“I am so excited to be going back out on tour, not just because I love to perform, but because I’m finally putting out a new record,” King said via a statement. “I have put all of my energy and love into this album and I cannot wait to share it live for everyone.”
Known for the Grammy-nominated “Ex’s and Oh’s,” King already has two country hits to her credit, her Dierks Bentley collaboration “Different for Girls,” as well as the Miranda Lambert collaboration “Drunk (And I Don’t Wanna Go Home).”
The Alabama natives Red Clay Strays include Brandon Coleman (lead vocals/guitar), Drew Nix (vocals/electric guitar/harmonica), Zach Rishel (electric guitar), Andrew Bishop (bass) and John Hall (drums).
See the tour dates for King’s A-Freakin-Men Tour below:
Feb 14 – New Orleans – The Fillmore Feb 16 – Atlanta – TabernacleFeb 17 – Asheville, N.C. – The Orange PeelFeb 18 – Asheville, N.C. – The Orange PeelFeb 19 – Lexington, Ky. – Manchester Music HallFeb 21 – Silver Spring, Md. – The FillmoreFeb 22 – Huntington, N.Y. – The ParamountFeb 24 – Boston – RoadrunnerFeb 25 – Harrisburg, Pa. – XL LiveFeb 27 – Cleveland, Ohio – Masonic AuditoriumFeb 28 – Cincinnati – The Andrew J Brady Music CenterMarch 1 – Indianapolis – Egyptian Room at Old Red CentreMarch 3 – Detroit – The FillmoreMarch 4 – Chicago – TBAMarch 5 – St. Paul, Minn. – The PalaceMarch 7 – St. Louis – The PageantMarch 8 – Kansas City, Mo. – Uptown TheaterMarch 10 – Denver – SummitMarch 11 – Salt Lake City – Union Event CenterMarch 14 – Portland, Ore. – Revolution HallMarch 15 – Portland, Ore. – Revolution HallMarch 17 – Stateline, Nev. – Harrah’s Lake Tahoe South Shore RoomMarch 18 – Sacramento, Calf. – Ace Of SpadesMarch 20 – Tempe, Ariz. – Marquee TheaterMarch 23 – Austin, Texas – Austin City Limits Live At Moody TheaterMarch 24 – Tulsa, Okla. – Cain’s BallroomMarch 25 – Bossier City, La. – Margaritaville Resort Theater (*Red Clay Strays not available for this show)
Music and events venue veteran Becky Colwell has been announced as the general manager for the Kia Forum and vp for music and events at the yet-to-open Intuit Dome, both in Inglewood, Calif. She joins the LA Clippers organization, which owns both buildings, and brings to the job 25 years of venue industry experience. Colwell will be responsible for operations and programming of the Kia Forum as well as the programming of Intuit Dome when it opens as the new home of the Clippers in 2024.
Colwell was previously the gm of the Greek Theater, first for SMG and then for ASM Global following AEG Facilities merger with SMG in 2019, and also served as regional director of booking for ASM Global’s western region. While at the Greek, Colwell was named 2017 venue executive of the year by the International Entertainment Buyers Association (IEBA), and the venue was consistently recognized as one of the top five venues in the country.
She starts her new role today, Oct. 24 and will report to LA Clippers president of business operations Gillian Zucker.
“Becky has earned a reputation for creating best-in-class experiences for all who step foot in the venues she leads and will help us continue to achieve new standards at the Kia Forum and Intuit Dome,” said Zucker.
Colwell added “I’m thrilled to join the Kia Forum family and to be a part of the talented team building what will be the best new venue in the world at Intuit Dome.”
Colwell has also worked as an executive at Booth Amphitheatre and Walnut Creek Amphitheatre in North Carolina. She is an alumna of Auburn University and currently serves as IEBA President and incoming chairman.
Wynonna Judd has added 15 additional shows to The Judds: The Final Tour, allowing the tour to continue into 2023.
Initially, the tour had been slated as a Judds farewell tour with Wynonna and her mother, Naomi Judd, prior to Naomi’s death on April 30 at age 76, just one day prior to The Judds’ induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame. Wynonna later revealed she would continue with the tour dates in honor of her late mother’s life and legacy, and welcomed a rotating roster of female artists to join her, including Martina McBride, Ashley McBryde, Kelsea Ballerini, Brandi Carlile, Trisha Yearwood, and Little Big Town.
The tour, which had been slated to run through Oct. 29 in Lexington, Ky., will now extend through February 2023, with McBryde, McBride, Ballerini, Carlile and Little Big Town all returning as opening acts on various dates for the 2023 run of shows.
“I have never felt so overwhelmed by this much love and support!” Wynonna said via a statement. “The emotions that flow while listening to the different generations of fans sing back to me each night has been otherworldly. I am so humbled by every artist that has come to sing with me on this tour. They’ve all managed to bring something so unique to The Judds music and I can say that no two shows are the same. It has been so life-giving!”
She added, “The decision to add 15 more shows was a no-brainer for me. The fans have been such a gift during my time of grieving and honoring my mother in song. What an amazing season this is. I look so forward to continuing the celebration of the music that has changed my life forever. In my 39 years of performing, these shows have truly been some of my absolute favorite experiences ever and I look forward to making new memories with the fans and guest artists in 2023.”
The Judds: The Final Tour, will visit Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena on Friday (Oct. 28).
See the full list of 2023 tour dates below. Presale tickets became available at 10 a.m. local time on Monday, Oct. 24. General public tickets will be on sale on Friday, Oct. 28, at 10 a.m. local time.
The Judds: The Final Tour Dates:
Jan. 26, 2023 – Hershey, Pa. – GIANT Center Jan. 28, 2023 – Bridgeport, Conn. – Total Mortgage Arena Jan. 29, 2023 – Worcester, Mass. – DCU Center Feb. 2, 2023 – Tulsa, Okla. -BOK Center Feb. 3, 2023 – Kansas City, Mo. – T-Mobile Center Feb. 4, 2023 – St. Louis, Mo. – Chaifetz Arena Feb. 9, 2023 – Omaha, Neb. – CHI Health Center Omaha Feb. 10, 2023 – Moline, Ill. – Vibrant Arena at THE MARK Feb. 11, 2023 – Dayton, Ohio – WSU Nutter Center Feb. 16, 2023 – Greenville, S.C. – Bon Secours Wellness Arena Feb. 17, 2023 – Fairfax, Va. – EagleBank Arena Feb. 18, 2023 – Charleston, W. Va. – Charleston Coliseum Feb. 23, 2023 – Savannah, Ga. – Enmarket Arena Feb. 24, 2023 – Tampa, Fla. – Amalie Arena Feb. 25, 2023 – Hollywood, Fla. Hard Rock Live at Seminole/Hard Rock Hollywood
Next year, George Strait is preparing to play his most extensive stadium run in nine years since he completed his two-year “The Cowboy Rides Away” tour in 2014.
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The country titan and his Ace in the Hole Band will perform six stadium dates starting May 6 at Glendale, Arizona’s State Farm Stadium and ending Aug. 5 at Tampa, Florida’s Raymond James Stadium. There is the potential for one more city to be added. All stops will feature Chris Stapleton and Little Big Town.
“It just felt right,” Strait tells Billboard via email of the mini-tour. “I had the opportunity to work with Chris and Little Big Town and everything just kind of fell in place for next year. I don’t do that many shows anymore, so if we can do a stadium where we can play for more people, that works for me.”
In 2012, Strait announced that he wasn’t “retiring,” but that “the old road-warrior days are just going to be over” after more than 30 years of touring. In 2016, he began an affiliation with Las Vegas’ T-Mobile Arena, which saw him playing several times a year at the venue (the Las Vegas dates will be on hiatus for 2023). He has sprinkled his calendar with a handful of arena, festival and stadium dates each year, but next year marks his biggest stadium commitment in nearly a decade.
Each year, Strait and Messina Group CEO Louis Messina, who has been promoting Strait’s concerts for around 30 years, and Messina Group senior vp Bridget Bauer talk about what’s next, Messina says. “There’s something about him and Chris together that’s magical. They love playing with each other,” Messina continues. “I said, ‘We should do something a little different than we’ve been doing.’ We’ve been doing one or two stadiums every year, but we said, ‘This is all we should do.’ Having him and Chris together and Little Big Town up there, it’s a pretty, pretty amazing show.”
George Strait and Chris Stapleton
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The outing includes stops at stadiums in Seattle and Milwaukee, venues Strait hasn’t previously played, as well as cities where he hasn’t performed in a long time. Unlike his arena shows, which are often in the round, the stadium stage will be in the end zone with minimal but top-of-the-line production, befitting Strait’s low-key presence. “We’re not carrying pyro or lasers or sh– like that,” Messina says. “There’s no dancers. People are there to see George.”
Tickets will go on pre-sale Oct. 26 and start at $59. The regular on-sale begins Nov. 4.
The ability to still sell out stadiums five decades into his career fills Strait, 70, with gratitude. “It’s amazing,” he says. “I’ve got the best fans in the world and I’m glad they still come out to hear us play. My whole career has been amazing as far as that goes. I’ve been blessed to be with a great record company, MCA, and although they don’t play me much anymore, country radio was really good to me for a lot of years and I really appreciate those years.”
And Strait has been great for country radio. With iconic songs like “Amarillo by Morning,” “The Chair,” “The Fireman” and “All My Ex’s Live in Texas,” his 61 top 10s on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart are the most of any artist, as are his 100 total entries on the chart. On Hot Country Songs, his 44 No. 1s also set a record, as do his 86 top 10s.
With so many smashes, Strait’s shows are usually wall-to-wall hits, and while he tries to change the set list up, “there are certain songs that I feel we have to do – I don’t want anything thrown at me!” he jokes. “I’m kidding, of course, but I just know when I go to see a certain artist it’s usually because of certain songs. If I don’t hear them, I’m disappointed.”
Like many artists, Strait gained a new appreciation for performing live when he was unable to play concerts during the pandemic shutdown. “I never took being able to play music for granted, but I certainly didn’t expect something like the pandemic to happen,” he says. “I think we all were afraid we might never get to play in those arenas or stadiums again; that it would be too restricted. I love watching football on TV again now and seeing people sitting shoulder to shoulder in these huge stadiums. It happened faster than I expected.”
While many artists find it hard to build a connection with their fans in a huge stadium, Strait says he’s just the opposite, and incredibly, still gets butterflies before he hits the stage. “For me it’s very personal. I can feel every person out there. It’s a huge vibe. Huge,” he says. “I’m always very nervous days or even weeks before. The day of, I’m not very good to be around, I don’t think. It all goes away though as soon as I walk onstage.”
George Strait and Little Big Town
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Strait has known Stapleton and Little Big Town for years. The lineup played a stadium show in Minneapolis in November 2021 (in a concert rescheduled from the pandemic) and in Kansas City this past July, but Strait says the dates were less of a test run for the 2023 stadium shows than they were simply playing with his friends: “They’re both super talented artists. I love working with both.”
During the Kansas City date, Stapleton’s wife, Morgane, asked the pair when they were going to do a duet together. “They go, ‘We’re going to figure something out,’” Messina says, though he adds, “George and Chris aren’t the most talkative people in the world when it comes to giving an answer. Though at least when you have Morgane pushing the envelope a little bit, that sure makes it easier instead of me asking. I know they love working with each other.”
On those dates, Stapleton joined Strait for a cover of Tom Petty’s “You Wreck Me” (a frequent selection on Strait’s setlist) and LBT harmonized with Strait on his hit “You Look So Good in Love.” Strait says while “there’s no guarantee that we’ll do songs together, [there’s] a high probability” that some crossover will occur. “If we do, we’ll pick something that works for both of us. Whether or not it’s ‘You Wreck Me’ or something else, you’ll just have to come and see,” he teases.
Strait’s last release was 2019’s Honky Tonk Time Machine, which was his 27th album to debut at No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Country Albums chart, the most of any artist. While he says he can’t promise that he’ll have new music by the time the first stadium date rolls around in May, “we could possibly have something new by then. It’s been a while for me and I’m definitely getting the itch.”
Though the first date isn’t until May, Strait is getting the itch to get back onstage as well, as he quotes his own lyrics from a 2011 song to describe his long love affair with his audience. “By the time showtime arrives every night, I’m usually tired of waiting and champing at the bit to go,” he says. “’When I walk through those curtains and see those smiling faces, my feet don’t touch the ground again till I walk back out and get on that bus that got me here’ — that’s from a song I wrote called ‘I’ll Always Remember You.’ It’s a true statement.”
Strait doesn’t rule out a similar run in 2024. “Whether or not we do it again the following year depends on how we all feel it went when we’re finished with these shows,” he says. “Chris and I haven’t talked about 2024 at this point.” Messina adds that a tour with shows 20 weekends in a row isn’t going to repeat, but a short outing could happen again. “It depends upon how he likes it or doesn’t like it,” he says. “The good thing about George Strait is we can do anything that he wants to do.”
George Strait 2023 tour dates:
May 6: Glendale, Arizona, State Farm StadiumJune 3: Milwaukee, Wisconsin, American Family FieldJune 17: Seattle, Washington, Lumen FieldJune 24: Denver, Colorado, Empower Field at Mile HighJuly 29: Nashville, Tennessee, Nissan StadiumAugust 5: Tampa, Florida, Raymond James Stadium
Calls to break up Live Nation Entertainment are getting louder.
The American Economic Liberties Project, a nonprofit advocating for more aggressive antitrust enforcement, urged the Department of Justice on Wednesday to unwind the merger between Ticketmaster and Live Nation for allegedly price gouging customers in addition to strong-arming artists and venues into accepting unfavorable conditions. In a letter to the DOJ obtained by The Hollywood Reporter, the group claims that the live-events behemoth continues to violate the conditions of a 2010 settlement greenlighting the deal.
“Ticketmaster’s market power over live events is ripping off sports and music fans and undermining the vibrancy and independence of the music industry,” said Sarah Miller, executive director of the American Economic Liberties Project. “With new leadership at the DOJ committed to enforcing the antitrust laws, our new campaign helps connect the voices of fans, artists and others in the music business who are sick and tired of being at the mercy of Ticketmaster’s monopoly with enforcers who have the power to unwind it.”
Ticketmaster and Live Nation merged in 2009, two years after the live-events organizer announced plans to build its own ticketing service. Prior to the deal, Live Nation was Ticketmaster’s largest customer.
The merger was met with pushback. Bruce Springsteen, upset at Ticketmaster for steering concertgoers toward its own secondary ticketing platform, wrote in a 2009 letter to his fans that “the one thing that would make the current ticket situation even worse for the fan than it is now would be Ticketmaster and Live Nation coming up with a single system, thereby returning us to a near monopoly situation in music ticketing.” (Springsteen’s current tour lists dates with Ticketmaster listings.)
At the time, David Balto, an antitrust attorney at the Center for American Progress Action Fund, testified to the Senate that the combined company “will cut off the air supply for any future rival to challenge its monopoly in the ticket distribution market,” and use its newfound reach to “diminish competition in independent concert promotion.”
Antitrust regulators approved the deal with certain conditions. They required Ticketmaster to sell its ticketing service subsidiary, Paciolan, to Comcast and to license its ticketing software to Live Nation’s rival, AEG. The new company was also not allowed to bundle or retaliate against venues for working with other ticketing services.
The American Economic Liberties Project argues that Live Nation is violating the consent decree. It points to conditioning the availability of the company’s performers to independent venues using Ticketmaster’s services.
“Live Nation essentially uses its concert promotion services to bully venues away from using the few competitors that Ticketmaster still has,” states an analysis from the group. “If a venue opts not to use those services, Live Nation retaliates by effectively boycotting the venue. Because Live Nation controls so much of the market for concert promotion, being able to book performers who contract with Live Nation can make or break a venue’s ability to survive.”
In 2019, the DOJ found that Live Nation had been violating the terms of the settlement by forcing venues to accept Ticketmaster’s ticketing services as a condition for hosting Live Nation performers and retaliating against those that refused. The agency, in turn, threatened to assess monetary penalties for additional violations and installed a monitor tasked with investigating further breaches of the consent decree, which was extended until 2025.
The organization also claims that Ticketmaster wouldn’t be able to charge hidden and excessive fees if it weren’t an illegal monopoly and that it facilitates price gouging by encouraging scalping. The company runs a secondary ticket market called Ticketmaster Resale, where they charge a second, more lucrative fee in addition to the fee assessed on its primary ticket market. By allowing scalpers to buy up the majority of tickets, Ticketmaster can essentially assess a second fee on consumers who missed out on the initial sale of concert tickets.
“Ticketmaster has an incentive to minimize the genuine sales by concertgoers on the primary market, by either restricting sales or allowing scalpers to buy, and then profiting from the price gouging in the secondary market, where consumers pay far more,” the analysis states. (The American Economic Liberties Project’s petition is here.)
This article was originally published on THR.com.
Live Nation Concerts has announced Geni Lincoln will be joining the company as their new president of California region. Lincoln will oversee all booking, marketing and business operations in California for the leading live entertainment promoter. She previously served as the GM and senior vp of live events for the Kia Forum in Inglewood, Calif.
“I am very excited to return to Live Nation and join the stellar California team,” said Lincoln. “I have been fortunate enough to have worked with some of the best teams in the business and look forward to continuing growing those relationships in this role at Live Nation.”
Concert industry veteran Rich Best, who previously served as president of California is now joining Live Nation’s global team. Under the leadership of Arthur Fogel and Omar Al-joulani, the global promoting team produces and promotes Live Nation’s worldwide tours for artists including The Weeknd, Billie Eilish, Harry Styles, Post Malone, Bruno Mars and more. Best has been with Live Nation for over 20 years, and in his time as a promoter has continued to help a roster of artists plan worldwide tours including Pearl Jam, Rufus Du Sol, and more.
Lincoln has worked at the Kia Forum for nine years and was part of the team responsible for maintaining the legendary venue’s high rankings every year and transforming the artist experience there. Live Nation booked hundreds of shows during Lincoln’s time at the Forum and Lincoln has worked very closely with much of the team she is now leading.
“We are thrilled to welcome Geni back to Live Nation, leading our California team,” said Jordan Zachary, co-president of US Concerts. “In her prior role at the Forum she has worked incredibly closely with our teams and we’re excited to see her continue to support even more of our division and the artists we support across California.”
Best added “This is a great opportunity for my friend Geni and I give her a warm welcome to one of the most vibrant concert markets in the world. At the same time I’m incredibly excited to take the next step living out my dream working with artists on a global stage.”
Her move to Live Nation is full circle as she began her career working for House of Blues Entertainment at Universal Amphitheatre in Hollywood, which became part of Live Nation during her tenure. (Universal Amphitheatre closed in 2013). In addition to her work in live events, Geni has also spent the last five years volunteering with Rock n’ Roll Camp for Girls in Los Angeles – a non-profit social justice organization empowering young girls through music education.
Car Seat Headrest singer Will Toledo told fans on Tuesday (Oct. 18) that he is unable to embark on the band’s planned West Coast U.S. tour and an appearance at this weekend’s When We Were Young festival due to what he described as ongoing serious health issues.
“After another month of struggling to regain my health, I am currently forced to face the fact that my body lacks the basic levels of functionality necessary to leave the house most days, let along embark on a tour,” Toledo wrote in a note to fans.
Though the 30-year-old singer did not specify what is ailing him, he said as a result of his illness they’ve been forced to pull out of the all-star When We Were Young event at the Las Vegas Festival Ground (Oct. 22, 23, 29) slated to feature sets from Paramore, My Chemical Romance, AFI, Hawthorne Heights, Jimmy Eat World, Bright Eyes, The Linda Lindas, Manchester Orchestra, The Used and many more.
“We are unfortunately forced to pull out of the When We Were Young festival dates and cancel our upcoming California tour,” Toledo noted of scheduled October dates in Pioneertown, CA (Oct. 20), Los Angeles (Oct. 25), San Diego (Oct. 26) and Santa Ana (Oct. 27). Refunds for the headlining dates will be available at point of purchase.
The band also pulled out of the Frantic City Fest in New Jersey on Sept. 24 citing unspecified “continued health issues as well as a planned Sept. 2 slot at Out of Space in Evanston, Illinois due to a rebound case of the post-COVID condition “histamine intolerance,” which Toledo said involves “heavy nausea, fatigue, dizziness and a ‘buzzing’ nervous system.”
Check out Toledo’s note below.