Touring
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Three days after former president/felon Donald Trump held a vengeful, race-baiting rally at Madison Square Garden, Cyndi Lauper – a musical icon and champion of LGBTQ and women’s rights – sought to cleanse the air at the iconic New York City venue on Wednesday (Oct. 30) during her Girls Just Wanna Have Fun Farewell Tour.
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“It’s about time [women] start stepping forward and voting for ourselves. We need equality – and I ain’t going back, that’s for sure,” she said early in the evening, before alluding to Sunday night’s MAGA rally: “We need a lot of love here tonight to dissipate a lot of the hate that was here. I wasn’t going to say this, but then I did,” she added with an unapologetic shrug. And she’s putting her money where her mouth is, too, donating proceeds from wig sales at her merch table toward her Girls Just Want to Have Fundamental Rights Fund at the Tides Foundation, which collects funds for “safe and legal abortions… women’s healthcare, prenatal care, postnatal care, cancer screenings — women’s health.”
The Billboard Hot 100-topping, EGT-winning musical icon has never shied away from being politically, creatively and musically outspoken – and the world has been better off for it. So while a Cyndi Lauper farewell tour is a bittersweet affair (one audience member vehemently screamed “no!” when she talked about this being her last major trek), you can’t blame her for wanting to go out while still in peak musical form.
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At 71, Lauper has not lost an iota of her distinctive vocal power. She roared through “She Bop,” belted “I Drove All Night” with 100mph gusto and brilliantly wove through her vocally fragile yet formidable cover of Prince’s “When You Were Mine.” For those ‘80s classics, her band – led by musical director William Wittman, who played on her career-launching classic debut She’s So Unusual (1983) – wisely hewed close to the original arrangements, bringing a crackling new wave punch to the material instead of trying to recast them through a modern lens. When you’re hearing these songs, you want those floating synths, snap percussion and sprightly guitars – not to mention the sublime recorder solo on “She Bop” that Lauper herself performed onstage.
Having a band that tight and well-oiled also afforded Lauper the freedom to stretch out vocally and let loose physically – which was abundantly clear toward the end of an ass-walloping “Money Changes Everything” where she hammered out various riffs on the chorus while writhing around on the ground.
Lauper’s setlist doesn’t shortchange on the hits, but half of the fun of the show is her off-the-cuff banter, delivered in that indelible, no B.S. Brooklyn fashion. “I still can’t parallel park for sh-t,” she quipped after “I Drove All Night”; while sharing a story about a famous actor who told her he was a big fan of The Goonies, she assured the crowd she would never namedrop, then paused significantly and said “Andrew Garfield” before singing the bouncy “The Goonies ‘R’ Good Enough”; and when introducing “I’m Gonna Be Strong,” a Gene Pitney cover she used to sing with her pre-fame band Blue Angel, she joked about struggling to figure out the song before learning proper key changes: “I tried to sing like him and I kinda sounded like Ethel Merman.” Rolling her eyes, pulling faces and delivering one-liners out of the corner of her mouth, Lauper is a naturally hilarious human who effortlessly commands an audience’s attention. (It’s a shame the 1988 adventure comedy Vibes, which she starred in alongside Jeff Goldblum and Peter Falk, was a box office flop, because she’s genuinely fantastic in it — you can’t help but wish she’d done more big screen work.)
Like so many funny people, Lauper can also use humor to help land an emotional gut punch. “Can you imagine if men could get pregnant?” she asked before singing “Sally’s Pigeons,” a harrowing, real-life-inspired tale of a back-alley abortion that ends in death. “What did Gloria Steinem say? It would be a sacrament.” Eyes were also glistening during “True Colors,” which Lauper performed on a small stage in the middle of the arena while a colorful scarf twisted through the air; her extended pause after delivering the “don’t be afraid” lyric at the end was particularly poignant.
And, of course, “Time After Time” had more than a few people wiping their eyes – not to mention dropping their jaws when surprise guest Sam Smith came out to join Lauper on the Hot 100 No. 1, blending their dulcet tones with her restrained, emotive delivery. (Smith watched the remainder of the show completely rapt from the side of the stage.)
The show wrapped, naturally, with “Girls Just Want to Have Fun,” which Lauper performed in a red polka dot outfit from Yayoi Kusama. After singing the line about “boys [who] take a beautiful girl and hide her away from the rest of the world” and wailing “I want to be the one to walk in the sun,” Lauper added a post-Roe appropriate lyrical update: “Everyone wants to have fundamental rights.” Before leading fans in a final sing-along of the chorus, she urged the crowd to give it their all: “Say it loud enough to get rid of all the bad energy in here,” she shouted, smiling. Based on the vitality, power and joy she brought to the MSG on Wednesday, it’s safe to say that the famed Manhattan arena has gone through the musical equivalent of a sage burning, fumigation and re-sanctification under her watch.
When hearing the term “national park,” most people probably don’t think of Trey Anastasio noodling a guitar solo or Nas performing “N.Y. State of Mind.” But at Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts, both of those things, and much more, happened over the summer.
Located in the Washington, D.C., suburb of Vienna, Va., Wolf Trap is the only national park that’s also a performing arts center and exists solely to be a venue. The park’s centerpiece, the 7,000-capacity amphitheater Filene Center, hosts more than 70 musical performances each season, the 2024 edition of which ended last month with a two-night run by James Taylor.
This season, the park also unveiled a collection of new and updated facilities. Because it’s on designated federal land, this new construction was mandated to aesthetically merge with the park’s pre-existing structures and overall feel. Staff even meticulously documented the areas being refurbished to expand Wolf Trap’s historical record.
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“Everything we’re building is going to be owned by the American people,” says Wolf Trap president/CEO Arvind Manocha. “There’s a lot of checks and balances to make sure that what we’re doing is permanent and meets a standard that’s consistent with the ideals of the way federal land is managed.”
Construction of the public areas started the day after the 2023 season’s final show, with improvements to seating, picnic pavilions, artist areas and more. The centerpiece of the construction is Meadow Commons, a stately, wood-paneled facility that opened in May. Replacing a concessions stand as old as the 53-year-old park itself, the new facility features picnic terraces, expanded food options, modern bathrooms, meeting spaces and elevators that make that area of the park more accessible to guests with mobility issues. The team also used locally sourced timber, installed low-flow toilets, traded out plastic for bamboo serveware and paper straws, installed a wastewater management design that considers local waterways, and built around a pair of 100-year-old trees.
Designed by architectural firm Gensler, whose global projects include the refurbishment of Hollywood’s Egyptian Theater and the construction of Nevada’s Grand Sierra Resort Reno Arena, the Wolf Trap updates were started during the pandemic and done in an architectural style that compliments the Filene Center — which has a striking Brutalist design and is clad in douglas fir — and other pre-existing buildings. Some of these structures date back to when the land was not a venue or park, but a working farm. “I would say it’s contemporary with a rustic heart,” Manocha says of the overall design aesthetic.
Meadow Commons at Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts
Courtesy of Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts
Backstage, an earlier phase of construction revamped the artist area, which Monacha knew — from his time as COO of the LA Phil Association, which oversees the Hollywood Bowl and Disney Hall in Los Angeles — is something that artists notice. (To wit, when Bonnie Raitt came onstage during a June 2022 show, the first thing she said to the audience was, “You guys should see what they’ve done for us back there!”) Wood that previously covered the exterior of the Filene Center was upcycled to cover walls in artist dressing rooms, and a huge map shows performers the location of every National Park in the system. Manocha says artists are now arriving early on show days so they can hike before they play.
Funding for these updates was raised through a private philanthropy campaign orchestrated by Wolf Trap Foundation for the Performing Arts, a private 501(c)(3) that works with the National Park Service to manage Wolf Trap. The campaign raised $75 million for onsite improvements and the park’s endowment, which also funds an artist training program and an education program designed by Wolf Trap and taught in pre-K schools and childcare centers nationwide. On-site improvements like Meadow Commons are effectively a gift to the park, given that these assets are on federal land and therefore can’t be owned by the Foundation.
While pretty, the land on which Wolf Trap sits is not, on its own, exceptional. You won’t see red rock canyons, towering waterfalls or rolling dunes. Nor does the land possess intrinsic historic value to the creation of the United States, as the country’s roughly 200 other national parks and monuments do. Rather, music and art provide Wolf Trap’s reason for being.
“The Park Service’s remit is to be the stewards of the fabric of American culture,” says Manocha. “In creating a national park for the arts, what the founders said [is] that artistry and creativity is part of the fabric of American culture. It is something that defines us as a people.”
Filene Center at Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts
Courtesy of Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts
Wolf Trap’s origins date back to the mid-1960s and a woman named Catherine Shouse. Born in 1894 in Boston to the family that founded Filene’s Department Store, Shouse was the first woman to receive a master’s degree in education from Harvard. She later became a lauded woman’s rights activist and went on to work in various government sectors. President Calvin Coolidge appointed her to work on women’s prison reform, and she served with every administration thereafter on myriad projects. She also had a farm in Vienna, then a rural outpost of D.C.
When Dulles airport opened 12 miles from Vienna in 1962, the construction of the road connecting it with D.C. split Shouse’s farmland by eminent domain. So, in the mid-’60s, she approached then-President Lyndon Johnson and Secretary of the Interior Stewart Udall and told them she wanted to use the land for a public sanctuary that would blend art and nature. She requested this area be designated part of the National Park Service — which was founded in 1916 with the creation of Yellowstone in Wyoming — to ensure a high level of care and permanent protection.
Shouse’s requests were granted, and Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts opened in the summer of 1971 with an inaugural performance by the New York City Opera. In the 53 years since, programming has diversified to include just about everything: The 2024 season included shows by Wilco, Robert Plant & Alison Krauss, Nas, Clint Black, TLC, Anastasio and many others.
“We’re programming the National Park for music, and the National Parks are owned by all Americans,” says Manocha. “So, we have an obligation that everyone in this region feels that Wolf Trap belongs to them. I want people to feel like, ‘There’s something here that speaks to me.’”
Filene Center at Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts
Courtesy of Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts
But given that Wolf Trap is a designated National Park, things also operate a bit differently than at a typical venue. Instead of police officers controlling traffic flow on show nights, the job is handled by Park Police and Rangers in the park system’s signature uniforms. The National Park Service also oversees maintenance of the grounds, which includes 120 acres of parkland, 90 acres of forest, trails and a large fishing pond. The Park Service is not involved in artist booking or other arts-related programming.
Of course, Wolf Trap isn’t the only park to host concerts. Red Rocks Amphitheatre exists inside Red Rocks Park, which is owned and operated by the city of Denver. Lollapalooza is permitted to happen in Chicago’s Grant Park. The 2,500-capacity Blue Ridge Music Center amphitheater exists within Blue Ridge Parkway National Park. But Wolf Trap is an outlier in that concerts are literally its entire reason for being. “It’s not like we have to get permission to put on shows at this park, because we are the park,” says Manocha. “Without the concerts, there is no park here.”
A little over eight months ago, Olivia Rodrigo had only headlined theaters. Flash forward to today, and she has sold out arenas on four continents and staged one of the year’s biggest tours. The pop phenom wrapped the Guts World Tour last week, bringing in $184.6 million from over 1.4 million tickets sold, according to figures reported to Billboard Boxscore.
The Guts cycle began in June 2023, when Rodrigo unleashed “Vampire,” the Grammy Award-nominated single that topped the Billboard Hot 100 for two weeks. The album followed, debuting atop the Billboard 200, landing its entire track list on the Hot 100, and earning two Grammy nominations of its own. After hedging bets with a theater tour following 2021’s gargantuan debut with Sour, the stage was set for an upgrade to arenas now that the sophomore slump had been avoided.
Rodrigo kicked off the Guts World Tour on Feb. 23 at Acrisure Arena in Palm Desert, Calif. That show sold 9,998 tickets, marking the smallest attendance for any stop on the tour. Things picked up quickly, ending her first North American leg with four shows at New York’s Madison Square Garden, earning $10 million from 57,900 tickets between April 5-9.
Though the New York run stands as the highest-grossing engagement of the Guts World Tour, that was not the end of Rodrigo’s run. She played 29 shows across 19 cities in Europe before returning to the U.S. and Canada for another 20 dates. To cap things off, she hit six Asian markets, plus four-night runs in Melbourne and Sydney, Australia.
During Rodrigo’s stint in Asia, her Oct. 5 performance at Manila’s Philippine Arena grossed $1.2 million and sold 48,800 tickets. It’s the best-selling single show of the entire tour – and her entire career – eclipsed only by four-night engagements in major markets like New York, London and Los Angeles. But out of 62 stops throughout 2024, it’s her third-lowest earner. That’s because she purposely kept tickets cheap, averaging $25.04 USD, which stands as less than a fifth the tour’s average of $128.81. Rodrigo is Filipino-American, and the show was a special stop – she is one of just seven artists to report concerts in Philippines this year – where all net proceeds went to local charity Jhpiego through the Fund 4 Good.
In terms of venue capacity and global reach, the Guts World Tour was a major step up for Rodrigo. While reporting for the Sour Tour was incomplete, its 16 reported shows averaged $415,000 and sold 5,517 tickets per show. Two years later, her nightly attendance is up 173% to 15,084, and her average gross jumped by 369% to $1.9 million. In 2022, she played 33 shows in North America and 16 in Europe. In 2024, those numbers bloated to 48 and 29, respectively, plus the 18 combined shows in Australia and Asia.
Still, there might be more room to grow. Co-manager Zack Morgenroth told Billboard that, per tour promoter Live Nation, demand indicated that Rodrigo could’ve packed stadiums just as well. Even at a low price, Rodrigo moved nearly 50,000 tickets in Manila, giving proof of concept.
The numbers are huge, but the tour’s greater impact extends beyond the accolades. Rodrigo’s Fund 4 Good led the way, in collaboration with HeadCount, the National Network of Abortion Funds and more. And then, there’s the secondhand buzz that helped guide Chappell Roan from the first leg’s opening act to industry noisemaker, eventually returning as a special guest in August, rousing the crowd with a choreographed sing-along of her own “Hot To Go.”
At 21 years old, Rodrigo’s Guts World Tour is the highest-grossing tour for someone of her young age (or younger) in a decade, dating back to when One Direction ruled the year-end Top Tours chart in 2014 with the Where We Are Tour. But that’s not enough – Rodrigo herself laments “When am I gonna stop being great for my age and just start being good” on Guts deep cut “Teenage Dream.” Her 2024 trek is now one of the 10 biggest pop tours of the decade so far, ranking among treks by peers like Harry Styles and icons like Madonna.
Brandi Carlile has signed with CAA and Phantom Management for worldwide representation in all areas. In addition to helping expand Carlile’s music initiatives, CAA will work to create opportunities across film, TV, publishing and more.
Phantom Management was launched this year by music veterans Catherine Carlile and Carolyn Snell. The company also represents longtime Brandi Carlile collaborators The Hanseroth Twins. Catherine, who is also Brandi’s wife, began her music career at MPL Music Publishing in London and went on to work with Paul McCartney for more than a decade. After relocating to the U.S. in 2011, Catherine served as the executive director of the Looking Out Foundation and creative director for Brandi before transitioning into senior management. Snell has led the coordination and management of global tours for renowned artists such as Reba McEntire, Janet Jackson, John Mayer and Indigo Girls.
Brandi Carlile is an 11-time Grammy award and two-time Emmy award-winning artist. She has released seven studio albums, including her most recent, the three-time Grammy-winning In These Silent Days. Carlile’s debut album, The Story, spent 25 weeks on the Billboard 200 chart; all of her subsequent albums also landed on the tally She has additionally placed 14 singles on Billboard‘s Adult Alternative Airplay chart, according to Luminate.
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Carlile is also a renowned producer, with recent Grammy Award-winning projects from Joni Mitchell and Brandy Clark. She is a founding member of the all-female country group The Highwomen and has collaborated with Elton John, Soundgarden, Alicia Keys, Hozier, Noah Kahan, Jacob Collier, P!nk and Dolly Parton. She is also the creator of two annual music festivals, Brandi Carlile’s Girls Just Wanna Weekend and Brandi Carlile’s Mothership Weekend.
In the publishing arena, Carlile’s 2021 memoir, Broken Horses, reached No. 1 on the New York Times bestsellers list. She is scheduled to release another book with Dey Street Books (Harper Collins) next year.
Carlile is also a founder of the Looking Out Foundation, which has raised more than $6 million for grassroots causes, and is a co-owner of the wine label XOBC.
Phantom Management was founded this year by Carlile’s wife Catherine and Snell, both of whom have long histories in the music industry.
With election day nearing, it’s possible that America is about to elect a historic first to the Oval Office. Yes, Kamala Harris could be the first U.S. president to have spoken the immortal words “Padam Padam” on camera.
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“Padam Padam,” of course, is the viral hit from Kylie Minogue’s 2023 album Tension, which stormed TikTok last year and nabbed the inaugural best pop dance recording Grammy in February. This month, the Aussie pop legend returns with Tension II, which precedes a huge global tour in 2025 – both of which Minogue chatted about when she swung by Billboard News for an in-depth interview about Padam-demonium, her second Grammy win, working with Sia and more.
“If there’s one Aussie, you’re probably not far from another Aussie,” Minogue tells Billboard News of teaming up with Sia – whom she calls a “High Priestess” – for “Dance Alone.” “She asked if I’d jump on a track. That’s modern parlance, folks – you jump on people’s tracks these days,” she says, smirking. “She’s so talented and such a legend.”
Tension II also features Bebe Rexha and Tove Lo on “My Oh My,” a playful track where each pop star introduces their name and their star sign (“What’s your name? What’s your sign? I’m Kylie, I’m Gemini”). “When we reached out to Bebe and Tove, I was thinking, ‘I hope neither of them are Gemini.’ It would really help if we were all different star signs,” she laughs. “Thankfully, we were.” Earlier this year, Rexha presented Minogue with the Icon Award at Billboard Women in Music. “That was very generous of her,” Minogue notes.
When I suggest that the Grammys specifically created the best pop dance category for Kylie and “Padam Padam,” she pauses. “I wouldn’t be mad at that,” she replies with a smile. “It’s been a while coming to have that category.”
As for what to expect on the upcoming tour – which finds her headlining New York City’s Madison Square Garden for the first time – Minogue says there will be songs from both Tension albums and “a taste of each decade.”
That includes her Hi-NRG cover of “The Loco-Motion,” the international smash that launched her career and hit No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1988. After years of mixed feelings about a hit single she recorded as a teenager, Minogue is finding “a real joy” returning to the song now. “It was the song that started my career,” she points out. “Over time there was a period where I was like, ‘I don’t know how to do it. It’s so uncool. How do I do it?’ But now everything has come full circle. I can really with all my heart and enthusiasm do this song.”
As for planning the rest of the massive tour? “G-U-L-P” she jokes.
To find out Kylie’s touring essentials (“coffee machine, let’s get real”) and what happened when Minogue met Frances McDormand, watch the full interview here.
Southern California concert promoter Goldenvoice, a subsidiary of AEG Presents, announced a new round of promotions for its talent-buying group on Tuesday (Oct. 29).
Talent buyer Becky Rosen-Checa will segue from booking shows at the historic 500-capacity Roxy Theatre in West Hollywood and the 770-capacity El Rey Theatre in L.A.’s mid-city to the 2,000-capacity Fox Theater in Pomona, as well as one-off L.A.-area shows for Goldenvoice. She will also help book gigs at Goldenvoice shows at Los Angeles State Historic Park and Brookside at the Rose Bowl, as well as festival properties Palm Springs Surf Club and Desert Air.
“After two very fulfilling years at the Roxy and El Rey, I’m excited to transition into my new role booking the Fox Theater in Pomona, festivals such as Desert Air & GV Surf Club, and other fun stuff around LA,” said Rosen-Checa in a statement. “Having started out at this company as the receptionist, I am grateful to those at Goldenvoice who believed in me and helped me get where I am today. I look forward to booking many cool shows and festivals for many years to come!”
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Henry Huerta, Rosen-Checa’s booking partner, will continue to handle booking duties at the Roxy and El Rey alongside newly-promoted talent buyer Montreh Nariman-Hassanabadi, who noted in a statement, “I aim to break barriers in live music by amplifying the voices of international acts, particularly Middle Eastern artists,” with plans to “create a vibrant cultural experience that resonates with all.”
Elsewhere, Chavanté Flakes, who joined AEG Presents in 2022, has been promoted to talent buyer at The Novo, where he joins current Novo talent buyer Gaston Leone. And in San Diego, Candace Mandracia has joined the company to help book shows in the area after most recently working at AEG Presents’ Las Vegas office. At AEG, Flakes will now book shows at San Diego’s Rady Shell at Jacobs Park, Humphreys and the venues at Pechanga Casino.
Said Mandracia in a statement, “I’m so excited to be back in San Diego, promoting concerts with John Wojas again. We have years of experience in the market together, and I look forward to being a part of the local Goldenvoice team!”
“It’s really gratifying to see someone grow and develop and to be able to recognize and reward that hard work,” added Melissa Ormond, COO at Goldenvoice. “To be able to do that with four individuals at one time is truly extraordinary. Becky, Montreh, Chevanté, and Candace all are great examples of the spirit we try to foster across Goldenvoice, and I’m thrilled to see them take these next steps on their collective career paths.”
The South by Southwest Music Festival has announced the first group of showcasing artists for its 39th annual event, scheduled for March 10-15 in Austin, Texas. Known for fostering discovery among fans and industry pros, the festival will feature an eclectic lineup from across the globe.
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Organizers today (Oct. 29) announced over a hundred new and established acts that will perform across Austin next March, including UK pop duo The Ting Tings, regional Mexican singer Justin Morales, Dublin punk band Gurriers, Indonesian psychedelic funk group Ali, Montreal art-punk ensemble La Sécurité, Australian rock band Delivery and indie pop artist Twin Shadow, who’ll debut his sixth album Georgie at the event.
“This announcement is an excellent teaser for what you can expect to see at SXSW 2025,” said James Minor, VP of Music Festival. “This round includes a range of exceptional artists, from up and coming talent to established legends, and everywhere in between. If you’ve been to SXSW before, you’ll know that this list is more than an eclectic playlist; it’s a guide to discovery, and your first step toward what you’ll experience in March.”
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The festival’s global scope is reflected in its artist selection (see the full list below), with acts representing countries such as Argentina, Canada, Denmark, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Japan, Mexico, and Norway. Showcases are curated with industry collaborators, including record labels, booking agencies, and media outlets like ATC Live, Billboard, Rolling Stone, Deezer, Music From Ireland and Sofar Sounds, among others, offering attendees exclusive, small-stage performances.
Founded in 1987 in Austin, SXSW has grown to encompass tech, film and TV, music, education and culture. The festival has also expanded to include SXSW Sydney and SXSW London, making it a key event for the global creative community.The entirety of the 2025 conference and festival will run from March 10-15.
In 2021, SXSW signed a “lifeline” deal with P-MRC, a joint venture between Penske Media Corporation and MRC, making P-MRC a stakeholder and long-term partner with the Austin festival. P-MRC is the parent company of Billboard.
The first round of SXSW 2025 artists invited to perform include
Ali (Jakarta INDONESIA)Amiture (New York NY)Annie-Claude Deschênes (Montreal CANADA)Ava Vegas (Los Angeles CA)babas tutsipop (Guadalajara MEXICO)Bakers Eddy (Wellington NEW ZEALAND)Bee Blackwell (Austin TX)Big Phony (New York NY)Bleary Eyed (Philadelphia PA)Boo Seeka (Dudley AUSTRALIA)Bubba Lucky (Austin TX)Bummer Camp (New York NY)Caleb De Casper (Austin TX)Cap Carter (Sydney AUSTRALIA)Cari Cari (Vienna AUSTRIA)Carter Vail (Los Angeles CA)CDSM (Atlanta GA)Chinese American Bear (Seattle WA)Cloth (Glasgow UK-SCOTLAND)corto.alto (Glasgow UK-SCOTLAND)Cotton Mather (Austin TX)Delivery (Melbourne AUSTRALIA)Dr. Pushkin (Bolgatanga GHANA)Dune Rats (Brisbane AUSTRALIA)Edgar Alejandro (Guadalajara MÉXICO)Ellur (Halifax UK-ENGLAND)Emmeline (London UK-ENGLAND)Exotic Fruitica (Austin TX)Fake Dad (Los Angeles CA)fantasy of a broken heart (Brooklyn NY)Frankie Venter (Mount Manganui NEW ZEALAND)GEOGRAPHER (San Francisco CA)Graham Reynolds (Austin TX)Guardian Singles (Auckland NEW ZEALAND)Gurriers (Dublin IRELAND)Gus Englehorn (Maui HI)Hachiku (Melbourne AUSTRALIA)HIMALAYAS (CARDIFF UK-WALES)Honeyglaze (London UK-ENGLAND)Housewife (Toronto CANADA)J.Tajor (Melbourne AUSTRALIA)Jad Fair and the Placebos (Austin TX)John Francis Flynn (Dublin IRELAND)Julie Nolen (Austin TX)Justin Morales (Cuernavaca MEXICO)Kanaan (Oslo NORWAY)KAP BAMBINO (Bordeaux FRANCE)Ki! (Copenhagen DENMARK)Kombilesa Mi (Palenque COLOMBIA)La Sécurité (Montréal CANADA)Laura Lee & the Jettes (Berlin GERMANY)Lauren Lakis (Austin TX)Letting Up Despite Great Faults (Austin TX)Levin Goes Lightly (Stuttgart GERMANY)Los Eclipses (Mexico City MEXICO)Lucy Sugerman (Canberra AUSTRALIA)MADELEINE (London UK-ENGLAND)Mall Girl (Oslo NORWAY)Man/Woman/Chainsaw (London UK-ENGLAND)Marry Cherry (Austin TX)Maruja (Manchester UK-ENGLAND)mary in the junkyard (London UK-ENGLAND)MatchingOutfits(BerlinGERMANY)MELLT (Cardiff UK-WALES)Meltheads (Antwerp BELGIUM)Mhaol (Dublin IRELAND)Midnight Navy (Austin TX)Miranda and the Beat (New Orleans LA)Monobloc(NewYork NY)Nanocluster [Immersion | SUSS] (Brighton UK-ENGLAND)Nature TV (Brighton UK-ENGLAND)Nemegata (Austin TX)Nilipek. (Istanbul TURKEY)Nive Nielsen (Nuuk GREENLAND)o’summer vacation (Kobe JAPAN)Parker Woodland (Austin TX)Paula Prieto (Buenos Aires ARGENTINA)Perennial (Vernon CT)Personal Trainer (Amsterdam NETHERLANDS)Pug Johnson (Beaumont TX)Quiet Money Dot (Houston TX)Really Good Time (Dublin IRELAND)Rowena Wise (Melbourne AUSTRALIA)Sarah Klang (Gothenburg SWEDEN)Scarlet House (Charlotte NC)Shao Dow (London UK-ENGLAND)Shiho Yabuki (Hadasu JAPAN)Shishi (Vilnius LITHUANIA)Sir Jude (Melbourne AUSTRALIA)Sly5thAve (Austin TX)SodaBlonde(Dublin IRELAND)Sofia Grant (London UK-ENGLAND)Sultanes del Yonke (El Paso TX)SummerPearl(LondonUK-ENGLAND)Surely Shirley (Kiama AUSTRALIA)Susobrino (Brussel BELGIUM)TesfayeTayeGebeyehu/YahoEthiopian Cultural Band/ (Addis Ababa ETHIOPIA)The Philharmonik (Sacramento CA)The Ting Tings (Manchester UK-ENGLAND)The VANNS (Wollongong AUSTRALIA)tiger bae (Harumi JAPAN)TVOD (Brooklyn NY)Twin Shadow (Los Angeles CA)twst (Barry UK-WALES)Vanessa Zamora (San Diego CA)Venus Grrrls (Leeds UK-ENGLAND)Volcan (San Antonio TX)Vv Pete (Sydney AUSTRALIA)Water Damage (Austin TX)Woomb (Sofia BULGARIA)XAMIYA (Tokyo JAPAN)Xixa (Tucson AZ)Yasmin Williams (Woodbridge VA)Yndling (Bergen NORWAY)Yoo Doo Right (Montreal CANADA)Yuuf (London UK-ENGLAND
You can acquaint yourself with the artists who’ll be performing at SXSW 2025 by subscribing to the official SXSW Spotify and YouTube Music Video playlists.
Ticketmaster plans to cancel roughly 50,000 resale tickets to Oasis’ U.K. reunion concerts over violations of the company’s terms and services, Billboard has confirmed. According to Ticketmaster, the canceled tickets were purchased using techniques that have been forbidden for the Oasis tour. Those include a prohibition on purchasing more than four tickets per household, per […]
There’s no disputing that concert tickets are more expensive than ever, with prices rising faster in the last three years than any previous period. Most of the major players in the concert business have recognized the rapid double-digit increase since the end of the pandemic, but few agree on what’s causing prices to spike or whether the increase represents a real problem.
“It’s like going to Disneyland on a really packed day and wondering, ‘How can so many people afford to be here right now?’” says Jed Weitzman, a ticket-pricing expert who specializes in the concert business. “Part of you wonders how a family of four can afford to be there, and yet, clearly, there’s no shortage of people willing to pay to get in.”
This year, the median ticket price to see one of the top 40 highest-grossing tours of 2024 — playing arenas and stadiums — will cost fans $151, according to data compiled by Billboard Boxscore. Three years from now, in 2027, the average cost of such a tour ticket is on track to hit $200 due to steady year-over-year increases to see in-demand top-tier acts like U2, The Weeknd, Sabrina Carpenter and Billy Joel.
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Prior to the pandemic, the price of admission to a top 40 concert had increased 3% to 4% a year, according to Billboard Boxscore. That number more than doubled when touring resumed, increasing an average 9.9% annually. A recent study from Torsten Sløk, chief economist at Apollo Global Management, concluded that tickets were increasing at about 11% a year.
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The reason for the price increase is less straightforward. Live Nation, the world’s largest concert promoter, attributes the escalation largely to the inflationary costs of global business in 2024. It also contends that tickets to see superstar talent, whether it be Oasis, Beyoncé or Bruce Springsteen, have long been underpriced by image-conscious artists who don’t want their fans to accuse them of price-gouging.
The problem with this argument, say officials with the U.S. Department of Justice who have filed a historic antitrust lawsuit against Live Nation, is that it ignores the structural advantages the megapromoter enjoys against nearly all of its competitors. Prices are rising, the government claims, because Live Nation can outbid its rivals by overpaying for touring talent and making up its losses in the concert promotion sector through its affiliated businesses: venue ownership, Ticketmaster and sponsorships.
The government argues that by overpaying for talent, Live Nation is also passing on these increased costs to consumers through higher prices. The problem with this theory, many concert experts argue, is that it oversimplifies the economics of touring and lets the government off the hook for its failure to enforce the Better Online Ticket Sales Act, which was signed into law in 2016 to thwart mass ticketbuying by scalpers using bots.
That failure to rein in the illegal use of software and hacking tools — which lead to huge markups on the secondary market — these experts contend, has created a pricing crisis that has made accessing tickets to popular tours at face value practically impossible. In a piece on StubHub’s postponed initial public offering earlier this year, longtime music analyst Chris Castle alleged that the wholesale use of bots to acquire and sell concert tickets “is not a theoretical antitrust case,” but one “dealing with real-time massive consumer fraud” that’s “perpetuated and funded by the public financial markets.”
WME agent Kirk Sommer, whose artist clients include Bruno Mars, The Killers, Adele and Hozier, says he’s cognizant of what other artists are charging for tickets, but fans tend to evaluate concerts on a case-by-case basis and are less concerned about pricing trends.
“I’m never focused on creating one price for a tour that is going to satisfy an artist’s fans,” Sommer explains. “The goal is always to create a wide range of opportunities that fans from all income levels can buy into. It’s important there is something for everyone.”
Taylor Swift’s blockbuster Eras Tour rolled into New Orleans on Friday (Oct. 25) for the first of three sold-out shows at Caesars Superdome. After a lengthy run of overseas dates, Swift returned to North America for three shows in Miami last week; New Orleans is the second city on this final leg of the Eras […]