Touring
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Crypto.com Arena and its concessions partner, Levy Restaurants, broke their previous record for food sales at this year’s 66th Grammy Awards, averaging $97.17 in sales per person, says Lee Zeidman, president of Crypto.com Arena, Peacock Theater and LA Live. The sales figure was enough to top the record per cap of $95.94 at last year’s […]
It’s a big week for Usher. On Friday (Feb. 9), he’ll release Coming Home, his first studio LP in eight years. Two days later, he’ll perform as the official headliner of the 2024 Apple Super Bowl LVIII Halftime Show. On Tuesday morning (Feb. 6), he announced Usher: Past Present Future, his first solo headline tour in a decade.
But that doesn’t mean that Usher has been away from the concert stage. In July 2021, he kicked off Usher: The Las Vegas Residency at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace. A year later, he moved down the strip to MGM’s Dolby Live for My Way: The Vegas Residency. As he looks forward to a new album and some of the biggest performances of his career, he can celebrate the success of these two residencies: According to figures reported to Billboard Boxscore, Usher has grossed more than $100 million across these Vegas stints.
The Caesars residency was relatively brief, with 14 shows in July and August 2021, and another six around the turn of the new year. Those 20 dates earned $18.8 million and sold 84,000 tickets. The MGM run was more extensive, hitting 80 shows between July 15, 2022, and Dec. 2, 2023. There, he grossed $95.9 million and sold 394,000 tickets.
Altogether, these theater shows grossed $114.6 million and sold 479,000 tickets across 100 dates. That’s a higher revenue total than any of Usher’s prior tours, previously topped by the OMG Tour, which brought in $76 million in 2010-11. That lined up with Usher’s other Super Bowl halftime appearance, when he made a cameo during the Black Eyed Peas’ 2011 set.
On a per-show scale, My Way: The Vegas Residency has averaged $1.198 million each night, surpassing $1.026 million from the OMG Tour and $698,000 from Truth Tour (2004-05). The latter run supported Confessions, the 2004 album that spawned four Billboard Hot 100 No. 1s and was the top Billboard 200 album of the year.
By almost any metric, that album and tour was a rare commercial peak for an artist with multiple No. 1 singles before and after. To improve upon his demand as a live act by more than 70% with his Vegas residencies proves the strength of his talent, discography, and brand, more than 30 years after he first hit the Billboard charts with “Call Me A Mack (From “Poetic Justice”)” in the summer of 1993.
Of course, inflation and an ever-changing ticketing market make comparing concert revenues from 20 years apart a difficult task. But in a Vegas theater a third the size of most North American arenas, Usher is a high-demand destination ticket. Both residencies have averaged a $239 ticket, far beyond the post-pandemic highs at Resorts World Theater and Caesar’s Bakkt Theater.
And while Usher arrived in Vegas in 2021 with new-and-improved demand, he leaves Sin City with even bigger momentum thanks to word-of-mouth around both residencies, a well-received Tiny Desk Concert and a run of single releases. His first stretch of shows at Caesars averaged $928,000, before increasing on almost every leg, peaking at $1.5 million on his last run of 21 shows from Oct. 11-Dec. 2.
After he releases Coming Home and plays the Super Bowl stage this weekend, he will embark on Usher: Past Present Future later this year. The arena trek launches on Aug. 20 in Washington D.C. and is scheduled through two shows in Chicago on Oct. 28-29. The initial announcement’s 24 North American stops could yield more than $50 million at the box office. But a successful album rollout and Super Bowl performance could lead to additional dates, extending his routing and pushing potential earnings further toward the $100 million threshold that he cleared after two and a half years in Las Vegas theaters.
Usher is set to hit the road again later this year as 2024 is shaping up to be a banner year for the R&B dignitary.
The hitmaker announced his Usher: Past Present Future tour, which will take him across North America toward the end of summer and into the fall.
CITI and Verizon customers will have a pre-sale window starting on Wednesday morning (Feb. 7), while the general public can get their hands on tickets next Monday (Feb. 12) on Live Nation. There are also VIP ticket packages available for those who are interested.
The 24-city trek will kick off in Washington, D.C., on Aug. 20, and will make stops in Boston, Philadelphia, Toronto, Brooklyn, Los Angeles, Atlanta and more, before wrapping up in Chicago with a date at the United Center on Oct. 29.
Per the press release, global dates are going to be revealed later on, so Usher is expected to be taking the show outside of North America.
The “Hey Daddy” singer will have plenty of new content to perform, as he’s slated to drop his Coming Home album on Friday (Feb. 9).
The project serves as Usher’s ninth studio album, and it’s his first released independently. It’s a star-studded affair across the 20 tracks, as he’s recruited Latto, Burna Boy, 21 Savage, The-Dream, H.E.R., Summer Walker and BTS’ Jung Kook to join him on the journey.
“I put a lot of heart and time into making sure that this was curated right. Something that felt like this next chapter of my life. It’s the next frontier, the next chapter of my legacy,” the “Love In This Club” singer said of the album in a recent interview with Club Shay Shay.
Forty-eight hours later, Usher will take over Sin City to hit the stage for the Super Bowl LVIII Halftime Show in Las Vegas on Feb. 11 at Allegiant Stadium.
Find all of the Usher: Past Present Future tour dates below.
Aug. 20 – Washington, D.C. @ Capital One Arena
Aug. 24 – Baltimore, MD @ CFG Bank Arena
Aug. 27 – Boston, MA @ TD Garden
Aug. 30 – Philadelphia, PA @ Wells Fargo Center
Sept. 2 – Toronto, ON @ Scotiabank Arena
Sept. 3 – Toronto, ON @ Scotiabank Arena
Sept. 6 – Brooklyn, NY @ Barclays Center
Sept. 7 – Brooklyn, NY @ Barclays Center
Sept. 12 – Detroit, MI @ Little Caesars Arena
Sept. 17 – Denver, CO @ Ball Arena
Sept. 21 – Los Angeles, CA @ Intuit Dome
Sept. 22 – Los Angeles, CA @ Intuit Dome
Sept. 28 – Oakland, CA @ Oakland Arena
Sept. 29 – Oakland, CA @ Oakland Arena
Oct. 4 – Dallas, TX @ American Airlines Center
Oct. 7 – Austin, TX @ Moody Center ATX
Oct. 11 – Miami, FL @ Kaseya Center
Oct. 12 – Miami, FL @ Kaseya Center
Oct. 17 – Atlanta, GA @ State Farm Arena
Oct. 18 – Atlanta, GA @ State Farm Arena
Oct. 22 – Charlotte, NC @ Spectrum Center
Oct. 26 – St. Louis, MO @ Enterprise Center
Oct. 28 – Chicago, IL @ United Center
Oct. 29 – Chicago, IL @ United Center
Breakout star Xavi is hitting the road with the 2024 Poco A Poco Tour, his first trek in the U.S.
The 19-year-old Mexican-American singer/songwriter is set to kick off the 24-date stint on March 28, starting with two stops in Mexico. On April 2, he begins his American stint in Los Angeles at the Roxy Theatre, making stops in Seattle, Portland, Phoenix and Las Vegas and wrapping up in San Antonio on May 12. The “La Diabla” singer is also slated to perform at Sueños Music Festival in Chicago on May 25.
The tour announcement comes on the heels of Xavi’s rapid rise in the music industry thanks to his signature tumbados románticos. Xavi signed with Interscope Records in 2021, and in 2023, he released a summer EP titled My Mom’s Playlist — a tribute to his mother that features covers of Latin pop and rock en Español classics she loved — reflects his deep-rooted family values.
At the end of December, Xavi debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 with not one, but two entries: “La Diabla” and “La Víctima,” which have since peaked at No. 22 and No. 55, respectively. His global appeal is further evidenced by his presence on the Billboard Global 200 and Global Excl. U.S. charts, with “La Diabla” reaching the top five on both.
He’s also spent eight weeks atop Billboard’s Latin Songwriters thanks to songs like “La Diabla” and previously released singles including “La Víctima,” “Poco a Poco” with Dareyes De La Sierra and “Modo DND” with Tony Aguirre.
Earlier this year, Xavi signed with WME for global representation in all areas.
Pre-sale tickets go live Wednesday (Feb. 7) via Seated.com. Public on-sale for tickets will be available on Friday (Feb. 9) through Xavi’s official website.
See 24 dates for his first tour below:
March 28, Auditorio BlackBerry, Mexico City, MexicoMarch 30, Teatro Diana, Guadalajara, Jalisco, MexicoApril 2, The Roxy Theatre, Los Angeles, CAApril 5, Showbox SoDo, Seattle, WAApril 6, Roseland Theater, Portland ORApril 7, Knitting Factory, Boise, IDApril 11, Arcata Theatre Lounge, Arcata, CAApril 12, Ruth Finley Theater, Santa Rosa, CAApril 13, The Catalyst, Santa Cruz, CAApril 14, Freemont Theatre, San Luis Obispo, CAApril 18, Riverside Municipal Auditorium, Riverside CAApril 19, The Observatory, Santa Ana, CA April 21, The Observatory North Park, San Diego, CAApril 26, Fox Theater, Bakersfield, CAApril 27, House of Blues Las Vegas, Las Vegas, NVApril 28, The Union Event Center, Salt Lake City, UTMay 1, The Van Buren, Phoenix, AZMay 2, The Rialto Theatre, Tucson, AZMay 3, La Hacienda Event Center, Midland, TXMay 5, The Plaza Theatre, El Paso, TXMay 9, Tower Theatre, Oklahoma City, OKMay 10, House of Blues Dallas, Dallas, TXMay 11, House of Blues Houston, Houston, TXMay 12, The Aztec Theatre, San Antonio, TX
In its first full quarter of operation, Sphere, the next-generation music venue in Las Vegas, lost $193.9 million on revenue of $167.8 million, its owner, Sphere Entertainment Co., announced Monday (Feb. 5). The company posted an adjusted operating gain of $14.1 million if “certain corporate overhead expenses” were excluded.
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In the quarter ended Dec. 31, nearly half of Sphere’s revenue — $92.9 million — came from The Sphere Experience’s 191 performances. (The Sphere Experience includes a tour of the venue and a viewing of the film Postcard From Earth.) Concerts accounted for nearly all of the $55.2 million of event-related revenues. Advertising on the outside of the venue and suite license fees totaled $17.5 million.
After U2’s residency ends on Mar. 2, the venue will host runs by Phish and Dead & Company. Executive chairman/CEO Jim Dolan didn’t announce any new residencies but said during Monday’s earnings call that “pretty much our calendar is full for this calendar year.” Demand from artists continues to grow, Dolan added, and the company expects 2025 to be “another full year.”
Including MSG Networks, Sphere Entertainment had $314.2 million of revenue and an operating loss of $159.7 million. MSG Networks had revenue of $146.4 million, a 12.5% decline from the prior-year period.
Sphere opened on Sept. 29 and posted $4.1 million from two U2 concerts, and $7.8 million in total revenue, in the previous quarter. The venue has received rave reviews and worldwide attention for its captivating audio-visual experience and presence on the Las Vegas skyline. It featured prominently in Las Vegas’s Formula 1 race in November and will grab more attention this weekend as Las Vegas hosts Super Bowl LVIII on Sunday (Feb 11).
Although Sphere ended its bid to expand into London, the company is having “substantive discussions about expanding to international markets,” said Dolan. The plan is to have a franchise model for additional venues that will generate revenues immediately through construction and development, Dolan added.
Shares of Sphere Entertainment rose as much as 10.4% to $39.11 on Monday and closed at $38.97, up 10.1%.
In recent weeks, The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Doug Stone, John Michael Montgomery, Ray Stevens and Lee Greenwood have all publicly announced plans to wrap the road portion of their careers. They’re hardly alone.
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The Oak Ridge Boys started their farewell tour this past fall, though tenor Joe Bonsall, suffering from a neuromuscular disorder, was forced to hang it up at the end of December. Dolly Parton recently revealed that she had decided not to return to the road since she wrapped her last tour in 2016. Additionally, country/rock band The Ozark Mountain Daredevils and the Eagles, whose current lineup includes country artist Vince Gill, are also concluding their regular concert routines. (Gill will continue to work as a solo act.)
Retirement is a well-earned rite of passage for most people in later life, though there are plenty of musicians — Willie Nelson and the late Tony Bennett and B.B. King are good examples — who maintain a road life until their bodies give out. They find it difficult to stop, spurred by fan adoration, good paychecks and/or the simple joy of performing.
But this new wave of retirees is generally finding it easier to hang it up after experiencing an extended home life during the pandemic. Once their tours were canceled in 2020, most country artists found themselves anchored for 12 to 24 months. Artists in their prime couldn’t wait to get back out, but those on the back end of their careers began to recognize that if they ended their road-warrior phase, it wasn’t necessarily the end of the road.
“We got a dose of our real life,” Nitty Gritty Dirt Band co-founder Jeff Hanna says.
The benefits include the kinds of everyday events that can’t be experienced from 1,000 miles away: dinner with a spouse, attending a daughter’s graduation or playing with the grandkids in the backyard. Making music for a living is attractive — none of the retirees wish they’d dug ditches or balanced books instead — but it involves sacrifices, and they discovered the opportunity exists to stop and smell the roses at home.
“We’ve got enough to retire on, so why not enjoy the rest of my life with my family?” asks Stone, whose 13-year marriage has produced a 7-year-old daughter. “We love going to Disney. I want to go see the redwoods and stuff like that.”
That yearning to explore the world is part of the attraction for young musicians, and in the early years, America’s topographic diversity can help keep a touring job interesting. But heavy concert schedules don’t usually allow much time to play tourist. Stone remembers one trip in upstate New York when the bus came within a 10-minute drive of scenic Niagara Falls. They had to bypass it stay on time, and he has never been back.
“I didn’t get to see America,” he says. “I got to see the back seat of a bus.”
The current wave of road retirements is actually a sign that some of Nashville’s structural changes have worked. Many of country’s previous legends — Hank Williams, Jimmie Rodgers or 1960s/1970s-era George Jones — faced financial problems after spending lavishly during their peak commercial years. Since then, business management companies have sprouted, helping modern acts plan their financial futures. Where many of their predecessors were required to tour until they couldn’t stop, modern acts have options.
“Most of them over the decades have gotten smarter in terms of managing their finances,” says Action Entertain Collective booking agent Travis James, who represents Montgomery and several other ’90s-associated acts. “Are there exceptions to that? Sure. There’s always going to be people that piss their money away with divorce or drugs or whatever the case may be. That’s in accounting and that’s in the NFL — it’s in everything. But by and large, the artists that were viable enough to have long careers and a show full of hits, even if they didn’t do it right the first half of their career, they figured out how to do it right the second half.”
Not that everyone is thrilled about hanging it up. During the COVID-19 break in the concert schedule, The Oaks missed the stage, missed seeing their fans and longed to make music again.
“That’s all we do in our lives,” bass singer Richard Sterban says. “We go out and entertain people and help people with our music. And we were not able to do that, so we didn’t necessarily like that feeling.”
Still, long rides on a sedentary tour bus and the repetitive motion involved in making music take a toll. Greenwood has titanium knees after several surgeries and had back surgery in 2020. Hanna blew an Achilles tendon in 2019 and now walks for exercise instead of running. And he has experienced some issues with his left hand — “which is kind of the money hand on the guitar,” Hanna says. “I have to play a little differently now.”
The body sort of makes retirement inevitable for most — “Like [Jimmie] Fadden says, ‘Do the math,’ ” Hanna quips — but modern artists’ money management makes it easier to take that step.
Greenwood, Stevens and Stone all plan to conclude their regular concert schedules in 2024, while Montgomery expects to wrap in 2025. The Oaks and Nitty Gritty Dirt Band could go on for years, in some cases picking the venues based on sentiment rather than income.
“We would prefer to go back to familiar places, to go back to people that we know,” Sterban says. “Basically, we want to perform in front of people that have helped make us who we are today.”
But the demand goes up once promoters and fans realize the artist’s shows are coming to an end, which also increases the price for many bookings. That’s the good news for the agents, though farewell tours are bittersweet for them, as they lose valuable clients.
“When they tell me they can cut back, that doesn’t help my financial bottom line,” James says. “I can’t sit here and tell you that I’m necessarily happy about it, but I sure am proud that I was part of the solution in helping them fulfill their goals professionally.”
If they retire early enough, the artists may be preserving themselves, too. Extended travel is physically challenging at any age. They’ll very likely miss the stage, but maybe not the wear and tear required to get there.
“I want to be on the planet,” Stone says, “not in it.”
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Drag-focused management firm Producer Entertainment Group (PEG) is officially expanding their stiletto-shaped footprint in the entertainment industry. On Thursday (Feb. 1), PEG announced their acquisition of Five Senses Reeling (FSR), a touring and events agency catering to LGBTQ audiences, Billboard can reveal. FSR joins PEG’s growing suite of businesses, including music label PEG Records, SERV […]
No Doubt and Sublime will each reunite at this year’s Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival for the first time in years, but there’s one massive reunion promoters couldn’t pull together: the Talking Heads.
Last September, festival curator and Goldenvoice president Paul Tollett traveled to the Toronto International Film Festival for a celebration of the 40th anniversary of the Talking Heads’ seminal concert film, Stop Making Sense. For the first time in over 30 years, David Byrne sat alongside his former bandmates Jerry Harrison, Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth to discuss the film project in a live panel moderated by Spike Lee.
Tollett tells Billboard he had traveled to Toronto to potentially discuss having the Talking Heads perform at Coachella and met with members of the band and their representatives, but that he “sensed there were no shows happening, so I didn’t make an offer.”
Tollett emphasized that he never broached the subject of payment with the band and ultimately went home empty-handed. He would not discuss how much he was willing to pay for a reunion show at Coachella, though a source familiar with how much artists are paid to headline the mega-festival says the gig could have earned the group as much as $10 million.
Shortly after Tollett returned from his trip, a second offer came through, this time from Live Nation. The promoter told the Talking Heads it was willing to pay the band $80 million to headline six to eight festival gigs and headlining slots, sources close to the group say. The Talking Heads ultimately rejected that offer as well. Live Nation declined to comment when asked about the offer.
Ever since Jane’s Addiction agreed to reunite at Coachella in 2001, the Indio, Calif., music festival has become the go-to platform for reunion gigs, with acts like Siouxsie and the Banshees, the Pixies, Rage Against the Machine, The Specials and dozens more all finding a way to come back together for one more show in the desert. But as the event ages — it’s now in its 23rd year — and competition in the festival market intensifies, pulling these kinds of comeback concerts together has become increasingly difficult.
More than two months after the Toronto Film Festival, in early December, Tollett found himself at the center of a controversial dispute around Sublime’s reunion. Mike “Cheez” Brown, who managed the group Sublime with Rome, had learned that music manager Kevin Zinger with Regime Music Group had joined forces with Vandals bassist and musician-turned-executive Joe Escalante to stage an official Sublime reunion with original bassist Eric Wilson, original drummer Bud Gaugh and late singer Bradley’s Nowell’s son, Jakob Nowell, on vocals.
Brown also learned that Zinger and Escalante were targeting Coachella for the band’s first major reunion show and called Tollett to discuss. Just months earlier, Tollett had booked Sublime with Rome atop the Cali Vibes reggae festival, slated for this February in the band’s hometown of Long Beach, Calif.
While Tollett and many other festival talent buyers had heard about the effort to launch a Jacob Nowell-fronted reunion, at the time Brown called him, Tollett had not yet submitted any offers for the group, who had not yet performed live together. A test gig eventually came together weeks later as part of a charity event, and by late December, Sublime with Rome and the new Sublime had reached a settlement. Brown and Sublime with Rome agreed to end the band’s 13-year run after it played the festivals and dates they had already booked for 2024, while the newly re-formed Sublime would prepare for its first comeback gig as a band, scheduled for Apr. 13 at Coachella.
The No Doubt reunion, largely negotiated in late December and early January, would turn out to be easier and more straightforward than Sublime and the Talking Heads.
It was Tollett who initiated talks with Stefani’s manager, Irving Azoff, about the idea. The discussion with bandmates dragged out longer than expected as talks delved into band business outside of the reunion, but eventually, the group agreed to reunite in large part because of its long relationship with Goldenvoice, who promoted some of the band’s first shows. The $10 million payday would be significant for bandmates Adrian Young, Tony Kanal and Tom Dumont, whose current band, DREAMCAR, is led by AFI singer Davy Havoc and booked to play Goldenvoice’s Cruel World festival in May.
For her part, Stefani was already booked to play Cali Vibes in February when she agreed to play Coachella. A source close to Stefani tells Billboard not to expect a major No Doubt tour to follow the one-time reunion set, as she already has plans in place for the second half of the year to promote new solo music she plans to release this summer.
As part of our continuing efforts to serve the music industry and its creators, Billboard Pro now features a music industry events calendar for readers.
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Dec. 4–10 – XLive (Las Vegas)
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As the music industry prepares to gather next week in Los Angeles for discussions on how to address climate change within the sector, a new initiative to better understand the scope of the challenge is underway.
On Monday (Jan. 29), MIT’s Environmental Solutions Initiative announced that it’s launching a comprehensive study of the live music industry’s carbon footprint. Co-funded and supported by Warner Music Group, Live Nation and Coldplay, the report will suggest solutions to reduce the environmental impact of live music events across all venue sizes, from, a statement says, “pubs and clubs to stadiums.”
Focused on the U.S. and U.K. markets, the partnership will begin with an initial research phase, with the resulting Assessment Report of Live Music and Climate Change expected to be complete by this July.
The report aims to provide a comprehensive assessment of the relationship between live music and climate change, to identify key areas where the industry and concertgoers can make tangible improvements to reduce emissions, to foster positive outcomes and to provide a detailed analysis of the latest developments in green technology and sustainable practices.
“I’m delighted that we will be working with our partners to co-create recommendations for a sustainable future in music,” says Professor John E. Fernandez, director of the ESI at MIT. “As well as jointly funding the research, I applaud the spirit of openness and collaboration that will allow us to identify specific challenges in areas such as live event production, freight and audience travel, and recommend solutions that can be implemented across the entire industry to address climate change.”
Coldplay has also committed to manufacturing all physical records for their forthcoming 2024 album from recycled plastic bottles, which a statement claims is the first initiative of its kind.
Coldplay is a longtime sustainability leader, with the band saying last June that its Music Of The Spheres tour has so far produced 47% fewer CO2e emissions than its previous tour and that it’s planted five million trees to date.
With fan travel being one of the biggest carbon emissions drivers in the music industry, in 2022 the band partnered with Live Nation and major public transportation providers to offer fans free or discounted rides to foster more sustainable travel. A study found that this initiative fostered a 59% average increase in public transport ridership on show days across four U.S. cities.