Touring
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Bad Gyal takes Billboard behind the scenes of her LA tour stop. The Latina superstar shares her creative vision, describes how she manages her team, and reveals what a day in the life of her tour looks like and more! Bad Gyal: My fans… I feel like they have the most crazy energy. And when […]
There aren’t too many singer-songwriters making brainy, avant-leaning dance-pop that appeals equally to the hips, the head and the heart, but Róisín Murphy has always been one of a kind. From her time in the duo Moloko in the ‘90s to her no-misses solo discography that includes electropop classics such as Overpowered (2007) and Róisín Machine (2020), she never fails to deliver, particularly on stage. So when the Irish artist hits the U.S. for a tour, people turn out – and sure enough, a packed audience spanning generations and state lines (some folks drove more than four hours to see her) greeted Murphy when she played New York City’s Brooklyn Paramount on Friday (June 7).
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With a title like Hit Parade Tour, one might wonder if the trek is Murphy’s version of Madonna’s Celebration Tour or Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour, both career-spanning global treks that played to enthusiastic (well, mostly) crowds and critical raves. And while Hit Parade is, more directly, the name of her 2023 album (which she followed this year with the companion piece Hit Parade Remixes), you wouldn’t be too far off.
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Over the course of a lengthy, muscular set, Murphy performed four tunes from her old band, one from her solo debut, three tracks from Overpowered, and four apiece from Róisín Machine and Hit Parade. Hardly career-encompassing (two albums were skipped), but a pretty healthy mix of beloved catalog and more recent material spanning a quarter of a century.
Throughout those years, Murphy’s substantial vocal chops have only seemed to improve with each release. During her show at the gorgeously restored, dramatically lit Brooklyn Paramount, she performed peerless electropop without singing to track (almost unheard of in pop) in front of a live band that provided every rubbery bass line, shimmering synth and razor-sharp beat in real time. (Originally a movie palace that opened at the top of the talking pictures era, Brooklyn Paramount turned into a live venue that housed everyone from Ella Fitzgerald to Buddy Holly in the ’50s before shutting down to the wider public for decades; it only reopened as a concert space this year thanks to Live Nation and Arcadis.)
As a fashion-forward artist frequently inspired by drag and queer culture (more than a few chart-topping pop stars with larger profiles have followed in her footsteps), Murphy brought a mix of camp, eleganza and couture to the show, changing her outfit for nearly every song – sometimes while still singing.
The wild costuming and nonstop dance party clearly resonated with her substantial queer fanbase, who turned out in big numbers at the Brooklyn Paramount despite Murphy’s controversial comments last year. In Aug. 2023, a screenshot from Murphy’s Facebook account called puberty blockers – a go-to boogeyman for people targeting the trans community – “F—KED.” Shortly after, she released a statement apologizing for her “directly hurtful” comments, affirming her commitment to “celebrating diversity” without directly backtracking on the issue; she did, however, promise to “bow out of this conversation within the public domain.” Since then, fans – who had previously expressed widespread disappointment in her comments – have mostly dropped the topic, and it didn’t seem to impact her ticket sales too much, at least based on the NYC turnout. (In 2023, she played Terminal 5, which fits about 300 more people than the Brooklyn Paramount does – not enough of a drop in venue size to extrapolate anything meaningful.)
Notwithstanding her regressive, unnecessary take on trans youth, Murphy continues to craft, record and execute some of the most innovative dance-pop of this century. And on her latest trek, it comes to life in all its beautiful, bizarre splendor.
Upcoming Hit Parade Tour Dates
June 10 – HISTORY – Toronto, Canada
June 11 – Riviera Theatre – Chicago, IL
June 13 – Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival – Manchester, TN
June 15 – The Fillmore Miami Beach – Miami, FL
November 1 – Roseland Theater – Portland, OR
November 2 – Moore Theatre – Seattle, WA
November 3 – Vogue Theatre – Vancouver, Canada
November 7 – The Shrine Expo Hll – Los Angeles, CA
November 9 – The Warfield – San Francisco, CA
Joshua Bassett is following the yellow brick road on a headlining tour this year, with stops planned for 39 cities across North America and Europe in support of his upcoming album The Golden Years.
The 23-year-old High School Musical: The Musical: The Series star announced Friday (June 7) that he’ll hit the road starting July 30 in Phoenix. After one month of stops in Houston, New Orleans, Nashville, Chicago, New York, Toronto and more North American cities, he’ll head overseas for a few weeks in Europe, traveling to Dublin, London, Amsterdam, Paris and more.
“I’M GOING ON TOUR IN NORTH AMERICA AND EUROPE !!!!” Bassett captioned an Instagram video of past performance clips. “RSVP NOW FOR PRESALE TICKETS AVAILABLE JUNE 11 AT JOSHUATBASSETT.COM !!!!!”
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The tour will kick off just four days after the singer/actor releases his debut studio album The Golden Years, which he announced last month. So far, he’s shared just one single from the project, a soft rock number that serves as the LP’s title track.
“If I would’ve known those were the golden years/ I would’ve held you longer that night when you kissed me goodbye through your tears,” he sings on “The Golden Years.” “If I would’ve known those were the golden years/ I would’ve never left you alone when you needed me most, my dear.”
See Bassett’s announcement and The Golden Years Tour dates below.
The Golden Years 2024 Tour dates
North America:
July 30 — Phoenix, AZ — Arizona Financial TheatreAug. 1 — Irving, TX — The Pavilion at Toyota Music FactoryAug. 2 — Houston, TX — 713 Music HallAug. 3 — Austin, TX — Austin City Limits Live at The Moody TheaterAug. 5 — New Orleans, LA — Fillmore New OrleansAug. 6 — Jacksonville, FL — Daily’s PlaceAug. 8 — Atlanta, GA — Coca-Cola RoxyAug. 9 — Birmingham, AL — Avondale Brewing Co.Aug. 10 — Nashville, TN — Ryman AuditoriumAug. 12 — Raleigh, NC — Red Hat AmphitheaterAug. 13 — Charlotte, NC — Skyla Credit Union AmphitheatreAug. 14 — Baltimore, MD — Pier Six PavilionAug. 16 — Philadelphia, PA — The Met Presented by HighmarkAug. 17 — Boston, MA — MGM Music Hall at FenwayAug. 20 — New York, NY — Radio City Music HallAug. 21 — Toronto, ON — Massey HallAug. 23 — Rochester Hills, MI — Meadow Brook AmphitheatreAug. 24 — Chicago, IL — Byline Bank Aragon BallroomAug. 25 — Minneapolis, MN — ArmoryAug. 27 — Denver, CO — Fillmore AuditoriumAug. 28 — Sandy, UT — Sandy AmphitheaterAug. 30 — San Francisco, CA — Bill Graham Civic AuditoriumSept. 1 — San Diego, CA — Cal Coast Credit Union Open Air Theatre at SDSUSept. 3 — Los Angeles, CA — YouTube Theater
Europe:
Sept. 16 — Dublin, IE — 3Olympia TheatreSept. 17 — Belfast, UK — Ulster HallSept. 19 — Glasgow, UK — O2 AcademySept. 20 — Birmingham, UK — O2 AcademySept. 22 — Manchester, UK — O2 ApolloSept. 23 — London, UK — Eventim ApolloSept. 25 — Brussels, BE — La MadeleineSept. 27 — Amsterdam, NL — MelkwegSept. 29 — Paris, FR — Salle PleyelOct. 1 — Barcelona, ES — RazzmatazzOct. 3 — Milan, IT — FabriqueOct. 5 — Munich, DE — MuffathalleOct. 6 — Cologne, DE — Carlswerk VictoriaOct. 7 — Berlin, DE — Huxleys Neue WeltOct. 9 — Copenhagen, DK — Vega
Equity analysts aren’t convinced the U.S. Department of Justice will accomplish its larger goal of separating Live Nation’s concert promotion and ticketing businesses, thereby undoing the controversial merger it allowed in 2010. But if Live Nation and Ticketmaster were to become separate companies, analysts estimate the combined companies would be worth from $85 to $96 per share, based on a handful of reports Billboard has seen.
Live Nation shares were trading around $101 to $102 the day before the lawsuit was announced on May 23. But shares have since traded in the $93 to $94 range, putting the current price at the upper end of analysts’ “sum of the parts” (SOTP) valuations. In the wake of the lawsuit, some analysts have lowered their price targets for Live Nation, and S&P Global downgraded its rating on Live Nation’s debt.
Any good merger creates value greater than the sum of the parts. Live Nation’s business model is a “flywheel” in which one segment (such as concerts) generates value for other segments (ticketing or sponsorship and advertisements). To the company, the flywheel is the result of hard-won competitive advantages built over the past 14 years. To the DOJ, the flywheel represents Live Nation’s ability to use its dominant market position to its advantage in anti-competitive ways.
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Breaking up Live Nation would eliminate the synergies that create value for the combined company. What is currently one stock would become two stocks of two separate companies with different management teams. Live Nation shareholders would likely get ownership in the new, standalone Ticketmaster. Analysts have calculated the value of Live Nation and Ticketmaster using a SOTP approach that combines the value of the business segments as if they were standalone companies.
But analysts have serious doubts the DOJ will succeed in breaking up the company. “Federal Judges…are generally pro-business and we doubt — at least based on [the DOJ’s 128-page] summary — the case is strong enough to either break up Live Nation or for the DOJ to win the lawsuit,” wrote Huber Research analyst Doug Arthur in a Thursday (June 6) note to investors. Similarly, J.P. Morgan sees “a real possibility that [Live Nation] comes out of this a winner” and fends off the DOJ’s ultimate goal of breaking up the company, analysts wrote in a May 29 note to investors.
“The government’s burden is going to be pretty high,” Bill Morrison, partner at Haynes & Boone, tells Billboard. “It’s long been the case in antitrust jurisprudence that it’s not illegal to have a monopoly. What’s illegal is to use that monopoly power in an anti-competitive way. And so that would be the burden that the DOJ would have to prove, which is to show that Live Nation abused its monopoly power and it acted unreasonably to restrain trade to maintain its monopoly.”
There could be outcomes other than a forced divestiture, however. Wolfe Research analysts note the “DOJ does not lose if it reached for the stars and landed on the moon,” they wrote in a May 23 note. “From that perspective, it is entirely possible the DOJ wants to get Live Nation/Ticketmaster to agree to remedies, such as eliminating exclusive ticketing deals, and is using the threat of a breakup to achieve those goals.”
The very existence of the DOJ’s lawsuit has changed how investors will approach Live Nation. The health of the concert business and Live Nation’s strengths will be overshadowed by the pall cast by the DOJ. Northcoast Research downgraded Live Nation from “buy” to “neutral” because analysts believe the stock price will be based on legal news and the political environment rather than fundamentals and business performance. J.P. Morgan also noted a “sentiment overhang” related to the DOJ’s lawsuit and lowered its price target to $116 from $126, although it kept its recommendation at “overweight.”
One variable that has largely gone unmentioned is the possible change in the administration at the White House. President Biden has taken an aggressive stance on protecting competition — the DOJ sank proposed mergers by Spirit-JetBlue and Penguin Random House-Simon & Schuster — reducing the fees consumers face everywhere from airlines to concert tickets, and criminally prosecuting companies over no-poaching rules and wage-fixing. A second Trump administration would bring an entirely new slate of appointments to head influential antitrust positions. “It depends on who is in those key [regulatory] spots, and then what the priorities are of those offices and the philosophy,” Morrison says. “We’ve seen big pivots in the past.”
Live Nation did not immediately respond to a request for comment on this story.
CTS Eventim completed the acquisition of Vivendi’s festival business and ticketing company, See Tickets, for 300 million euros ($327 million), Vivendi announced Thursday (June 6). The German concert promoter and ticketing company had entered into a put option to acquire the businesses from Vivendi on April 2.
The acquisition includes such festivals as the Junction 2 in the United Kingdom and Garorock in France. Vivendi’s performance hall business, See Tickets France and Brive Festival in France, were not included in the deal.
The two acquired businesses had 137 million euros ($148 million) of revenue in 2023. See Tickets, which counts Glastonbury Festival and Tomorrowland as clients, had revenue of 105 million euros ($114 million) and earnings before interest, taxes, amortization and depreciation (EBITDA) of 26 million euros ($28 million). The festival business had revenue of 32 million euros ($35 million).
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The acquisition will provide a big boost to CTS Eventim’s existing ticketing sales. In 2023, Vivendi’s ticketing business sold 44 million tickets in Belgium, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, the United States and its largest market, the United Kingdom. That was roughly half of CTS Eventim’s 2023 internet ticket volume of 82.9 million tickets, according to the company’s 2023 annual report.
“The acquisition supports our internationalization strategy and will also benefit artists and their managers, as we will be able to offer even more seamless services on a global scale,” said CTS Eventim chief executive Klaus-Peter Schulenberg in a statement announcing the acquisition in April.
CTS Eventim’s ticketing business had revenue of 717.3 million euros ($776 million) in 2023, up 32% from the prior year, with EBITDA of 382.4 million euros ($414 million), up 47%. Its concert promotion business had revenue of 1.67 billion euros ($1.8 billion) and EBITDA of 111.6 million euros ($121 million).
Creative Artists Agency (CAA) has promoted Emma Banks, Darryl Eaton and Rick Roskin to new leadership roles at the agency. The three veteran agents have been named co-heads of the agency’s global touring division, leading 340 employees across music, comedy and podcast touring as well as brand partnerships, tour marketing, private events and crossover opportunities in film, TV and books.
The promotions follow the elevation of CAA veteran Rob Light, who served for more than 25 years as CAA’s head of global touring. Light was recently named a CAA managing director, working alongside other company leaders in guiding the agency’s overall strategic direction. The promotion came in the wake of last year’s sale of CAA by majority owner TPG to Artémis, the investment firm controlled by François-Henri Pinault, CEO of fashion firm Kering and billionaire scion of a French luxury goods fortune.
“With the most talented team of agents ever at one agency, and serving the most influential artists in the world, we see unlimited opportunities ahead,” a statement attributed to Roskin, Eaton and Banks reads.
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“The live business has never been stronger nor had more momentum, and artists have never had more ways to express themselves and grow their careers, making this an absolutely incredible time to help chart CAA’s path for the future,” the statement continues. “We’re fortunate to have shared in the success, stability and uniquely strong culture that the department has enjoyed under Rob’s outstanding leadership. Our vision, and commitment moving forward, is to foster cutting-edge ideas that drive the market and ensure that CAA remains the most exciting and empowering agency for the industry’s best agents and artists to thrive.”
Banks has co-led the CAA’s now 60-person London music office since joining the agency in 2006. In addition to her new leadership position in touring, she serves on CAA’s internal agency board that focuses on the company’s culture of service, collaboration and excellence. She was the first female executive to receive the music industry’s coveted Music Industry Trust (MITS) Award in 2018, was honored with the prestigious Strat award in 2023 for outstanding contributions to the music business and serves on the board of Nordoff Robbins, the United Kingdom’s premier music therapy charity.
Eaton and Roskin became co-heads of contemporary music for North America in 2015, running the day-to-day operations of the North American touring department and supporting more than 100 agents and 280 employees. Eaton, who joined CAA’s mailroom in 1991, has played a pivotal role in the department’s expansion, leading its efforts to launch and grow its electronic, Latin, and hip-hop/R&B divisions. Roskin began his career at CAA and has worked in the touring department for 35 years. He was an original member of CAA’s internal agency Board and was part of the leadership group that completed the successful integration of talent agency ICM.
“CAA remains the dominant music and comedy touring agency thanks to a profoundly deep culture of collaboration, innovation, and unyielding devotion to clients,” said Light, who recently signed a long-term contract to remain at the agency. “For years, Darryl, Rick and Emma have been extraordinary partners to me in leading our touring group in North America and London, respectively. I am immensely proud of all that we have achieved to date and look forward to what they will create in the years ahead. Along with my new strategic responsibilities, I look forward to continuing to sign and empower great artists, creatively build long-term careers, and mentor young executives.”
CAA co-chairman/CEO Bryan Lourd added, “Rick, Darryl and Emma have long been among the most talented and widely admired leaders in the industry, not to mention three of the best agents in the world.” He continued, “The leadership role they each already play at CAA has earned them deep respect and trust among our colleagues across all departments.”
With employees in Los Angeles, Nashville, London, New York, Austin, Miami and Toronto, CAA’s global touring department boasts a roster that includes The Weeknd, Harry Styles, Katy Perry, Dua Lipa, John Mayer, Rüfüs Du Sol, Jelly Roll, Kelly Clarkson, Blink-182, Kelsea Ballerini, Peso Pluma, Lady Gaga, Bruce Springsteen, Trevor Noah, Red Hot Chili Peppers and David Guetta. Since the end of the pandemic, CAA has signed Shawn Mendes, My Chemical Romance, Janet Jackson, Cody Johnson, Koe Wetzel, The 1975 and Bleachers, among many others. In the past year, the agency has booked more than 38,000 shows.
One of the country’s busiest nightclub markets is getting an addition, with a new club called Substance set to open in Las Vegas on July 12.
The venue will be booked by Las Vegas-based entertainment promotion/production company Rvltn Events, which is partnering with dance behemoth Insomniac Events and the Latin-focused Altura for artist bookings.
The space opens July 12 with a set from house duo Walker & Royce. The summer calendar also includes dance producers Kshmr, Boombox Cartel and Crankdat, with additional artist announcements forthcoming. Saturday nights at the club will focus on Latin music, with the venue also set to feature genres including regional Mexican, rock, R&B, reggae and more.
A single-story, 18,000-square foot venue on Fremont Street in downtown Las Vegas, Substance is located inside the Neonopolis entertainment complex. The space will have an industrial aesthetic, a large-scale LED installation and graffiti and other art by visual artist Gear Duran.
Rvltn is operated by partners Marcel Correa and Joe Borusiewicz, who are also the owners of Substance. The Rvltn Events family also includes Altura Presents, the house and techno-focused Elation and the New Year’s Eve event Jackpot.
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“Growing up in Las Vegas, we’ve always loved our great city and its incredible potential to become a thriving local music scene,” Correa and Borusiewicz said in a joint statement. “We’ve attended countless shows, festivals and events here, and our passion has always been about serving our fellow locals.
“As promoters, working with various venues throughout the city has given us deep insight into what works and what doesn’t — from guest experience and operations to overall strategy. No one enjoys paying $30 for parking or navigating a casino just to attend an event. People dislike strict dress codes, long lines for drinks and bathrooms, poor sound quality and gouging fees. At Substance, our goal is to create an entertainment destination that addresses these issues, incorporating everything we’d want as event producers and local music fans. We can’t wait to unveil our most exciting venture to date.”
Steve Sayer recently celebrated his 10th anniversary at The O2, the AEG Europe-owned and operated London arena that consistently ranks among the world’s top-grossing concert venues. In 2023, the 21,000-capacity building grossed $220 million from 188 shows, placing it second only to Madison Square Garden (MSG), which grossed $223 million, on Billboard’s Top Venues chart (15,001-plus capacity). In terms of total attendance, The O2 is a global leader, welcoming a record 2.4 million people through its doors last year (600,000 more than MSG), according to figures reported to Billboard Boxscore, justifying its claim to the title of “world’s most popular music venue.”
This year looks to be just as busy, with The O2 recently hosting sellout shows by Bring Me the Horizon, Take That, Depeche Mode and The 1975 as well as the three-day Country 2 Country (C2C) festival and 2024 Brit Awards. Upcoming bookings include J Balvin, Doja Cat, Justin Timberlake, Janet Jackson, four shows by Liam Gallagher and six shows by The Killers.
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“We’re grossing huge sums for the artists, selling an incredible number of tickets and we continue to invest and innovate to make sure the fans are having an amazing time,” says Sayer, who joined The O2 in 2014 as commercial director before being promoted to VP/GM of the arena four years later.
In addition to overseeing the day-to-day management of the venue, which first opened in 2007, Sayer is responsible for operations at the wider O2 complex, which also contains a second 2,800-capacity venue, a 210,000 square-foot designer shopping outlet, a 19-screen cinema and more than 30 bars and restaurants. “We’re certainly not resting on our laurels,” says Sayer. “We want to continue to be the front runner.”
Here, Sayer discusses dynamic ticketing, the rapidly-increasing costs of putting on shows, his opposition to a proposed Sphere venue in London and more.
Steve Sayer
Courtesy Photo
This year marks your 10th anniversary at The O2. What have been some of the biggest highlights and challenges in that time?
There have been so many highlights and quite a few challenges. It sounds cliched now, but a global pandemic and the shutting down of the live industry for 18 months was an incredible challenge for everybody. We’ve got nearly 200 [staff] that I’m responsible for and I guess what I’m most proud of is leading the team through that period, minimizing a very small number of redundancies and probably coming out stronger at the other end than we’ve ever been.
How has the pandemic changed the live and arena business?
Ticket-buying behavior has definitely changed in terms of late buying. There’s also been a definite shift in the number of shows that are getting booked within weeks and months of the show playing out. Pre-pandemic we would have really good visibility 12 to 18 months [ahead] in terms of what’s in the diary. We still have that to a large degree, but 20% of our shows are now short lead and that’s been a real shift.
What do you regard as some of the biggest issues facing the live music business?
One of them is sustainability. We’re acutely aware of our responsibilities and we collaborate with all our stakeholders right across the industry and we’re pushing hard on that. It would be remiss of me not to mention general cost inflation, which is impacting every part of the live ecosystem. Our energy costs are significantly higher than they were four years ago, and they are only going one way. Wage inflation has gone through the roof: double-digit growth in the last couple of years. The cost of putting on shows and running venues is significantly higher than it has ever been and that is a challenge to try and manage and mitigate that. Another challenge is the [health of] the broader live music ecosystem. While The O2 is having incredible success, we know the U.K. grassroots sector is having a tougher time. We’re cognizant of the importance of a vibrant live ecosystem that fuels sustained success for all of us.
Last month, a Parliamentary committee called for a new voluntary tax to be added to arena and stadium tickets sold in the United Kingdom to support struggling grassroots music venues. Is that something The O2 supports?
It’s something we’ve been talking within the industry about. One thing that we have got to understand as far as a levy [is concerned] is just what is legally permissible when you start thinking about competition rules and unilaterally adding levies to the price of a ticket. But it is certainly something that we’re actively exploring and it’s something that we’re talking about within our own business.
Unlike in the United States, the U.K. live music market has so far been generally resistant to the introduction of dynamic ticketing, whereby prices are set according to demand. Can you see that changing?
My sense is that you are going to see more dynamic pricing in the U.K. It will be an interesting challenge. It’s well understood in Europe that in travel and hotels, you pay a different price based on demand. We haven’t had that in the [U.K.] entertainment or the live sector or even really in sport, but obviously, it is commonplace in the U.S. and North America. My sense is that on certain shows and certain artists, it will start to come in. It’s just a question of over what time period and to what extent. Are we talking about a relatively small number of ringfenced tickets? Or are we talking about the entire manifest? That’s the big question.
AEG strongly opposed proposals by MSG to build a Sphere concert arena in East London, not far from where The O2 is based. Madison Square Garden Entertainment (MSGE), which is owned by James Dolan, withdrew those plans in January following opposition from London Mayor Sadiq Khan. Was that a big win for The O2?
The thing with the Sphere that we’ve always been quite open about is — it’s not about competition. Competition is healthy. We are constantly looking at what other venues, festivals and other industries are doing and what we can learn. There was a lot of local opposition to the Sphere [in London]. Local residents didn’t want the light pollution. Las Vegas is a very different city and a completely different environment to East London. All along we said, “We don’t oppose competition in the live music industry.” But that was the wrong scheme in the wrong location in our view and that was what the [London] Mayor also concluded.
Are there lessons to be learned from the high-profile teething problems at the Oak View Group-owned Co-op Live Arena in Manchester, the U.K.’s biggest concert venue, which finally opened last month after a series of costly delays and cancellations? And what impact do you think the arrival of a major new U.K. arena will have on the wider business?
Building and opening any venue of scale presents various challenges and only underpins the importance of meticulous planning, thorough preparation and engagement with key stakeholders throughout the process, right up to opening day. There’s lots that we can always learn from new venues but we’re not resting on our laurels. We’re going to continue to invest in The O2. This year we’re upgrading our Wi-Fi. We’re starting a two-year program to renovate all our backstage. We’re continuing to look at what we can do on the sustainability front, so back-of-house we’re operating as efficiently as we can be. It’s a good time to be in the industry because while there are challenges, undoubtedly the market forecasts are strong.
Live music experts are anticipating the antitrust lawsuit brought by the U.S. Department of Justice against Live Nation to take years to resolve, given the wide scope of the claims against the concert giant and the various stakeholders in the live music ecosystem.
“It is going to take a couple of years, at least,” Lee Hepner, senior counsel of anti-monopoly group the American Economic Liberties Project, said at the NIVA 2024 conference in New Orleans on Tuesday (June 4). The conference is put on by the National Independent Venue Association, which formed in 2020 to secure federal funding from the government during the pandemic. The upside, for Hepner and other speakers on the panel called Ticket Tyranny: The Unseen Grip of Market Dominance, is the “massive potential in restructuring the industry.”
Ant Taylor, founder and CEO of ticketing competitor Lyte, agreed on Tuesday saying, “Given how big the scope [of the DOJ lawsuit] is, it is going to be challenging to see it through… What excites me about this moment is the opportunity we have as an ecosystem to look — not just at Live Nation — but to look at the way we do business together and the conditions in which Live Nation has thrived.”
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Specifically, Taylor added, “What’s the business model of ticketing and why, for 40 years, has there been so little innovation around it?”
Ticketmaster has been a dominate force in the ticketing business for decades — its 2010 merger with Live Nation only strengthened its position in the U.S. market. The DOJ lawsuit claims that Live Nation-Ticketmaster has “unlawfully maintained monopolies in several concert promotions and primary ticketing markets and engaged in other exclusionary conduct affecting live concert venues, including arenas and amphitheaters.” A major concern for the DOJ and the group of 30 states that jointly filed the suit on May 23 is Live Nation’s “flywheel model,” which the DOJ describes as a “self-reinforcing business model that captures fees and revenue from concert fans and sponsorship, uses that revenue to lock up artists to exclusive promotion deals, and then uses its powerful cache of live content to sign venues into long term exclusive ticketing deals, thereby starting the cycle all over again.”
Unlike the consent decree that Live Nation has been under since the merger, which was designed to prevent the company from abusing its position, Kevin Erickson, director of Washington D.C.-based nonprofit organization Future of Music Coalition, told the audience that he believes the DOJ lawsuit is focusing on the correct parties impacted by the alleged monopoly: the artists, venues and fans.
“Even with the best intentions, a consent decree is inadequate to address the potential for harm,” Erickson said. “It shifts the enforcement burden onto the people who have the least amount of power. It forces artists and artist representatives and venue folks to monitor for violations of antitrust law.”
Hepner explained that Future of Music Coalition has been collecting such complaints against Live Nation for years and encouraged those in the room to reach out on how to connect with the DOJ with additional complaints as the lawsuit works its way through the justice system.
If the DOJ’s lawsuit is successful and Live Nation is forced to divest Ticketmaster, the panelists expressed hope that without the promoter’s financial backing, competition in ticketing will flourish, allow for innovation and end exclusive ticketing contracts often used by Ticketmaster and other major ticketers.
Panelist Gary Witt, president and CEO of Pabst Theater Group, stressed the importance of eliminating Ticketmaster’s dominance due to growing customer dissatisfaction. “It is not about your experience when the customer comes through the door. It is not about the artist’s experience when they come backstage. It’s about the initial experience of buying a ticket,” Witt said to the audience.
The primary ticketing market has become “a closed market and allows for zero innovation,” Witt said, adding, “We have an industry to save here.”
Jelly Roll is hoping to bring his high-energy stage presence overseas, but he’s overcoming some “legal puzzles” first. The “Need a Favor” superstar sat down with Jon Bon Jovi for a wide ranging Interview Magazine discussion, where he shared that he’s hoping to tour internationally. “It’s funny, America has finally agreed to let me leave […]