State Champ Radio Touring
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In a year fraught with festival cancelations due to increasing costs of production and severe weather events, All Things Go festival has taken the opposite approach and doubled down. After 10 years in Washington, D.C., All Things Go organizers announced they were adding a New York edition on the same weekend of Sept. 28-29 at Forest Hills Stadium. With more than 40,000 fans on a waitlist annually, according to ATG partner Stephen Vallimarescu, the additional location seemed less like a gamble and more about meeting demand.
“By hosting both festivals on the same weekend, we’re able to serve more of our community and deliver a lineup that we feel is best-in-class,” Vallimarescu tells Billboard.
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For several years, ATG has made a concerted effort to create lineups that reflect its growing community. Since 2018, the highest billed artists on their lineups have been women or non-binary musicians including Lorde, HAIM, Mitski, Maggie Rogers, Chvrches, Lana Del Rey, Boygenius, Carly Rae Jepsen, Charli XCX and more. And the equity isn’t only represented in gender. With performers including MUNA, Girl in Red, King Princess, Arlo Parks, Fletcher, MICHELLE, St. Vincent, Tegan and Sara and Ethel Cain, over the past five years ATG has landed some of the most LGBTQ+ filled lineups outside of LGBTQ+ events (and even many specifically LGBTQ+ events) and earning the nicknames “gaychella” and “lesbopalooza.”
This year ATG have landed some of the buzziest names in touring including Laufey, Remi Wolf, Hozier, Janelle Monáe, Reneé Rapp and Chappell Roan, who has been drawing record-breaking crowds across festivals.
“We’ve got Hozier, Conan Gray and Bleachers featured on our D.C.-area lineup alongside Laufey, Reneé Rapp, Janelle Monáe and Chappell Roan at the top of the bill,” says ATG partner Will Suter. “We’ve been able to see each of these artists perform live – either in a club or festival setting – and we’re expecting big sets from each of them.”
Billboard caught up with Vallimarescu, Suter and ATG manager of partnerships and experiential Carlie Webbert to discuss the festival’s growth, their embrace of the “lesbopalooza” nickname and how they managed to book the right acts at just the right time.
Why did you decide to add an additional All Things Go on the same weekend as the Washington, D.C. one?
Vallimarescu: After growing the festival for the past decade in Washington, D.C., and with over 40,000 fans on the waitlist annually, the decision to introduce an additional festival in New York City felt like a natural step. We were inspired by the success of festivals like Reading and Leeds and recognized that coordinating artists between both markets on the same weekend would allow us to curate the most compelling lineup possible. This approach is especially helpful for international artists, who constitute a growing portion of our lineup and often find it challenging to travel to the U.S. for a single show.
How did you land on New York for that second location?
Vallimarescu: New York City has always been on our radar, despite its reputation as a challenging market for festivals. The turning point for us was reconnecting with Mike Luba, the visionary behind Forest Hills Stadium. The unparalleled atmosphere he and his team have cultivated at the venue made it clear that this was the perfect location to bring the magic of All Things Go. There is clearly a void in New York City for a new festival experience centered around music above all else, and we’re thrilled to see the excitement around our inaugural year.
How has the reception been to the lineups for both editions?
Vallimarescu: The reception to the lineups for both editions has been phenomenal. Both festivals sold out instantly, with hundreds of thousands of fans joining the queue for tickets — a reaction we don’t take for granted, especially at a time when many established festivals are facing challenges.
Our approach to booking the festival, often more than a year in advance, focuses on building a lineup that peaks at the right moment and showcases the next generation of artists. This year, artists like Reneé Rapp, Chappell Roan, and Laufey are at the forefront of this new era, and we’re beyond grateful to be collaborating with them.
Why is it important for ATG to have a lineup with a heavy presence of women and non-binary artists?
Suter: So much of our artist booking is based on our audience feedback – and it’s become a clear direction that supports female and non/binary artist dominated lineups, especially as we’ve moved to multiple stages and homed in our genre-focus. The website Book More Women has a methodology that has our DC-area festival at about 58% female/non-binary and New York at 93%.
Was it your mission at ATG to become “gaychella” or “lesbopalooza”?
Suter: “Lesbopalooza” is a term that Naomi McPherson of MUNA coined closing out our Chrysalis stage in 2023 – and has definitely stuck. “Gaychella” popped up around the 2023 lineup announcement in a few TikTok videos. Our mission has been to create a festival and a space that’s reflective of our community – it’s a mission that has evolved over time as our direct communication with our fans has via Discord, our Boomfy’s Besties Fan Club and other fan-forward initiatives in addition to closer dialogue with many of the artists on the lineup.
What do you make of the moment queer women are having in pop culture now? With the dominance of Chappell, Reneé Rapp, MUNA, etc.?
Webbert: Queer women have a long history in the spotlight, but it feels like there has been a noticeable shift in the positive reception of these artists. With the growing fandom of this generation of pop stars, there has been an even stronger surge in self-expression and pride in being queer. Look at Chappell Roan, for instance, she grew up under the belief system that being gay was a sin. Many of the artists on the All Things Go lineup, along with their communities, share a history of shame around their sexuality. It feels like we are collectively shedding that repressed part of ourselves and creating an environment of acceptance. It’s beautiful — there’s a lot of embracing who we are and being truly seen happening.
Besides the lineup, how does ATG create an inclusive environment at the festival?
Webbert: There is a big emphasis for representation at the festival and how we platform advocacy/mission-based organizations, such as Propeller, The Ally Coalition, Reverb, Calling All Crows, Headcount, Women in Music and Amplify Her Voice. Last year, we had an activism village on-site at the D.C.-area festival where fans could interact with different non-profits and engage in a meaningful way. Our community is intentional, and by including LGBTQ+, environmental, healthcare, voter registration and other organizations, we acknowledge a clear passion for creating change that our community wants. All that said, we are hopeful that over the years this side of our festival will grow and we’re able to have an increased number of diverse voices represented throughout our programming.
The first time Chappell Roan played in London was at the capital’s Garage to 600 people. That was just over a year ago in June 2023 her introduction to the U.K. She’s since been booked and busy.
Roan had a mammoth run opening on Olivia Rodrigo’s Guts tour in the US, cementing her place as an artist with serious breakout potential. In spring, she had a scene-stealing appearance at Coachella and debuted her new song “Good Luck Babe”, which would go on to land at No.6 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No.2 on the U.K. Singles Charts.
Further live appearances at New York City’s Governors Ball and Chicago’s Lollapalooza saw the crowds swell, and a win at the recent MTV VMAs last week took things even further. A day before the opening night at London’s O2 Academy Brixton (Sep 19) – the first of three sold-out shows – it was announced she’d perform on SNL in November. It’s all happening, all at once.
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A ticket for a gig like this was gold dust, a chance to see an artist in what will soon be considered intimate settings. And the crowd at Brixton knew it: they were giddy with excitement pre-show as local drag queens bossed it on stage and the crowd adhered to the night’s dress theme: black, red and love hearts in line with “My Kink Is Karma”, a crowd-favourite from debut 2023 album The Rise and Fall Of a Midwest Princess.
The show arrived amidst a sold-out run throughout the rest of the U.K. and Europe and despite the 5,000-strong crowd, already felt like a huge underplay. These were the very best moments from the night.
Chappell Roan performs during her ‘Midwest Princess Tour’ at the Brixton Academy on Sept. 19, 2024 in London, England.
Jim Dyson/Getty Images
Horns up
Each night at the tour has come with a theme for attendees inspired by the campness of her songs, ranging from Pink Pony Club (fuchsia cowboy hats) to Midwest Princess (plaid patters). Last night My Kink Is Karma called for leather, face-paint and devil horns: even the security were spotted getting in on the action with a glittering scarlet headband.
The U.K. love
Crowd flattery never hurts, but when Roan spoke directly to the Brixton crowd about their connection, it felt very real. “The U.K. has always been the most welcoming to me,” she said, reflecting on the journey she’s been on. From levelling up from the Garage to iconic gay club Heaven last December to now a trio of nights at the historic O2 Academy Brixton – to the tune of 15,000 tickets – the U.K.’s enthusiasm for getting out and supporting live emerging acts cannot be understated.
Knowing the moves
You have to admire Roan for attempting to explain to the crowd the moves to “Hot To Go!”, her viral hit and signature moves: not a single person needed any instructions to pull off the YMCA-aping moves spelling out the song’s title. A sea of arms flew up on every chorus to nail the collective dance that’s been all over your TikTok feed for the past few months at festival season.
Chappell Roan performs during her ‘Midwest Princess Tour’ at the Brixton Academy on Sept. 19, 2024 in London, England.
Jim Dyson/Getty Images
Nailing the notes
With just one album under her belt, Roan knows how to keep things fresh. “Subway”, which got its debut at Gov Ball in her Lady Liberty get-up, was already something of a crowd-pleaser, the wistful longing for an ex that still hangs around as she bounces around the city. When Roan belted out the closing refrain of “she’s got away”, her voice sounded sublime and powerful, as did the crowd’s.
A streamlined production
The expectation and scrutiny for stars to be arena-ready from the off feels more intense than ever with eager fans in the room and at home looking for faults and bones to pick. There’s no questioning Roan’s performance – her red cowboy boots barely hit the ground with all the high-kicks – but the streamlined setup played to her strengths. Her tight band, made up of Andrea Ferrero (guitar), Lucy Ritter (drums) and Allee Futterer (bass), kept things moving and the vibrant light show proved that visuals are not mandatory when the performer is as engaging as this.
Love for the queer community
Roan has been candid about the new attention that’s come her way and how toxic ‘fans’ occasionally overstep the line. But judging by last night’s crowd, that’s hopefully an anomaly, not the trend. She recognises as such about how this fanbase is crucial for the queer community and the need for allies. “I’m so thankful I have the queer community. I needed this when I was 15. You belong here. I don’t care where you are on your journey, I want you here – you are cherished and I want you to feel that. Thank God gay people exist. Thank God straight people support them.”
A dazzling deepcut
Before “Kaleidoscope”, Roan told the crowd that she’d shied away from playing this song on the U.K. leg and was considering dropping it all together. But when she spoke of the pressure to speak to her fans from the stage she explained “how much easier I find it just to sing” and let those words say it all. So for “Kaleidoscope”, she played it straight: no band members, just her and the piano. It goes to show just how strong a songwriter Roan, particularly once all the sequins have stopped shimmering and you tune into her hushed reverence.
Chappell Roan performed:
“Femininomenon”“Naked in Manhattan”“Super Graphic Ultra Modern Girl”“Love Me Anyway”“Picture You”“HOT TO GO!”“After Midnight”“Coffee”“Kaleidoscope”“Casual”“The Subway”“Red Wine Supernova”“Good Luck, Babe!”“My Kink Is Karma”“California”“Pink Pony Club”
Last week, Coldplay teased their upcoming U.K. tour in a fairly low-key way. A vintage flyer from one of their early gigs in 1998 was discreetly displayed at Camden music venue The Dublin Castle in London, and contained news of a run of shows that the band were set to announce for August 2025. But it featured a big statement that could throw a lifeline to the grassroots music scene: scrawled in pen at the bottom of the poster, it announced that 10% of proceeds were to go to “small venues and upcoming acts”.
When the band formally announced the run of next year’s shows in London and Hull, the scale of the message became clear. They confirmed that 10% of all revenue generated at their eight stadium shows next summer will be donated to the scene and that the concerts’ promoters (SJM Concerts, Metropolis Music and Live Nation), the band’s booking agent (WME), the venues (Wembley Stadium and Hull Craven Park) and the official ticket agents (Ticketmaster, See Tickets and AXS) would all do the same.
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This will be no small figure. For context, the Music Of The Spheres tour was recently named the biggest rock tour of all time and passed the $1 billion (USD) gross mark for the full run of shows that began in 2022. Coldplay remain a big ticket seller and their run of eleven shows in July 2024 grossed $66 million according to Billboard Boxscore figures. Even once production costs and more are deducted, the donation from these U.K. shows will be seismic.
Music Venues Trust will be at the heart of the project alongside Save Our Scene and other key stakeholders. It arrives at a critical juncture for the U.K.’s music scene. Figures from the MVT reported that 125 venues had closed in 2023, and that places like North West England have suffered more than anywhere else.
Mark Davyd, MVT’s founder and CEO, has been vocal about the challenges at hand and what needs to be done to protect and re-energise the U.K.’s scene. The newly-elected Labour government has made positive noises about a mandatory ticket levy on large-scale music events in the country to be reinvested to the grassroots scene.
Talk is cheap, but Coldplay – who release new album Moon Music on Oct. 4 – have put their money where their mouth is. They follow British rock band Enter Shikari who partnered with the MVT in 2023 to donate £1 from every ticket sale to help safeguard the scene’s future.
Following the announcement, Davyd spoke to Billboard about the state of the grassroots music industry, and what Coldplay’s donation will do for its future.
How did this collaboration come about with Coldplay?
Davyd: “The conversations began in December 2023 and came directly from the band and their management. The band were very concerned about what was happening to grassroots venues and touring, and had worked with their management to think about who they should be in contact with. They reached out to an organization called Save Our Scene run by George Fleming, who very graciously in turn recommended speaking to the Music Venues Trust. By February 2024, it had been agreed that when they announced their 2025 shows, that they’d be making a contribution to the grassroots to support the venues, artists and promoters.”
Did you ever feel like it might not come to fruition and that there would be opposition to a move this seismic?
“We’re hyper-aware that there are lots of companies who would at least like to slow this process down if not completely avoid it, which is a bit depressing as it is the music industry itself that is the beneficiary of schemes like this with support for new and emerging artists. I try to press the point that, ultimately, financial support into the grassroots ecosystem will create the talent of the future from which people make lots of money.
But ultimately we all do respond to what the artists tell us that they want. If it’s an artist the stature of Chris and the lads and they want something to be done, people are going to find a way to get it done. I’m a huge admirer of their other work including making their concerts carbon-neutral, and I think that’s a good example of something that is important to the band and important to the management and everyone in the ecosystem around them.”
Coldplay
Anna Lee
It must feel extra pleasing that it was Coldplay, a band that has been on the exact journey you’re trying to protect.
“The vast majority of artists that are headlining stadiums have a story about their progress through the music industry that nearly always includes grassroots venues. Even Dua Lipa played a load of smaller venues at the start of her career.
This particular one has a ring of authenticity to it. In fact, I actually booked Coldplay three times at Tunbridge Wells Forum about 25 years ago! I think the band and the management around them very much understand these arguments and conversations about why waterfalling music down to the grassroots is so important.”
What will the money do for the grassroots music scene?
“We will be ringfencing this money as this type of money must achieve a number of things. It’s not just about venues, it’s also about artists and promoters. It’s about getting more artists into more venues into more places across the U.K.
There are certainly some things that venues would benefit from: there are venues, for example, that aren’t accessible where we can put some support behind that so more people can use it. Because of the nature of where this money comes from, I think we will be looking at what we can do regarding energy consumption in venues, too.
We want to create something that’s really impactful, meaningful and we want every pound to do something constructive. Everybody in the industry knows that there is a real crisis at grassroots touring. There’s fewer tours as artists can’t afford to play them, but also the length of the tours is a real challenge alongside the locations of where they’re going.
The first tour Oasis did back in 1994, for example, was 34 shows long. There is no band playing that level of shows at grassroots levels anymore. It just isn’t happening. That means that vast swathes of the country are not able to see emerging bands and artists as they’re coming onto the market.”
Do you believe the pipeline from grassroots to stadium is still possible?
“I think it’s still possible. We’ve been doing it for 60 years. There is no lack of enthusiasm for live music. We’re selling more tickets than ever across all sectors, but we’re selling them to a decreasing demographic across the population. So this is a project not just for the artists, but creating future music consumers.”
Do you have an idea on how much this donation might end up totalling?
“I don’t at this stage. We’re not being evasive about that, but there are a number of things in play about their production costs and obviously we don’t know those yet. But we do know that 10% of a stadium run is a sizeable amount and will have a significant impact. This will mean that venues stop closing, that tours can happen and that promoters can take risks on bands that really need support but don’t have the money to make that happen. It is that impactful. It won’t be geographically located in one place, it’ll be spread right across the UK. We’ll see more shows happening with better facilities at venues; this money will achieve a lot.”
The Oasis ticket scandal in the U.K. reignited the discussion about how tickets are sold, the value of them and what could be done on these big tours to support the future of music. What was your response?
“I was disappointed with the Oasis thing, mainly because if you go back to the Commons select committee hearings in March, you can read the words of the representatives of the music industry saying to MPs that they know about the problem with grassroots venues and that they’re going to get it solved. At the point when they were saying that, Coldplay had already made that decision and taken a leadership position while apparently the music industry was working on solutions… but we haven’t seen any solutions of that work that the industry said they were going to undertake.
Everyone’s talking about Oasis but I can throw out other names. There were show announcements for Catfish and The Bottleman and Glass Animals right around the same time. These are artists that if you asked them, would completely understand that the grassroots is important and that music in our communities is important, so why isn’t there contribution from those shows? I’m not blaming anyone, but if we’re going to stand in parliament and say that we’re going to sort this out, let’s sort this out.”
Will the MVT be looking to collaborate with more artists like this going forward?
“Absolutely, our door is very open to anyone on this topic. I want this to become the new normal – I don’t think that’s stupidly ambitious. There are lots and lots of examples of industries – all properly functioning industries – to reinvest to get future gains. As soon as you start talking about it as an investment program into research and development, I don’t think companies should be resistant to that but should be thinking, ‘that makes perfect sense’.”
The legendary Vans Warped Tour could make a return in 2025.
The traveling rock and punk tour, which launched in 1995, would celebrate its 30th anniversary next year, and founder Kevin Lyman hinted at its return earlier this week.
“We have something cooking for 2025,” Lyman told Pollstar. “Details should be ready in a few weeks.”
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Billboard reached out to Lyman to confirm the news but did not hear back by publication.
Warped Tour spent 24 years traveling around North America with acts like The Damned, Green Day, Incubus, AFI, Against Me!, Paramore, M.I.A., The Misfits and hundreds more before retiring the touring model in 2018.
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“I’ve done everything I can in the format that this is in,” Lyman told Billboard at the tour’s final stop in West Palm Beach, Florida, In 2018. “It wasn’t supposed to be around 24 years. It wasn’t supposed to be around more than one year. But enough people saw what I was trying to do.”
In 2019, Warped Tour announced a slate of three 25th-anniversary editions in Ohio, New Jersey and California with a who’s-who of festival alumni including Blink-182, 311, Bad Religion, The All-American Rejects, Andrew W.K., Anti-Flag, Gym Class Heroes, The Offspring, Simple Plan, Bowling for Soup, Taking Back Sunday, Reel Big Fish, Less Than Jake and Good Charlotte.
Following the end of Warped Tour’s run, Lyman rebranded his 4Fini, which put on the annual Warped Tour events, to KLG (Kevin Lyman Group). The production and strategic branding group, KLG, continues to work on festivals and events throughout the industry.
Already one of the most successful and prolific Latin music artists in Boxscore history, Luis Miguel has re-entered the record books with his ongoing world tour. According to figures reported to Billboard Boxscore, the Luis Miguel Tour 2023-24 has grossed $318.2 million and sold 2.2 million tickets in its first 146 shows. That makes it the highest grossing tour ever among Latin acts.
At an Aug. 28 show in Caracas, Venezuela, Miguel slid past Bad Bunny’s World’s Hottest Tour ($314.1 million) and Karol G’s Manana Sera Bonito Tour ($313.3 million) for the Latin Boxscore record and extended it a few days later with a concert in Juarez, Mexico.
Miguel’s current tour kicked off with a bang last summer, with 10 shows at Buenos Aires’ Movistar Arena, and then another 10 at the venue of the same name in Santiago, Chile. Those 20 kick-off dates brought in a combined $28.1 million and sold 227,000 tickets, already establishing it as the third highest grosser of his storied career. After that, he toured through the U.S., Mexico and Latin America, back to the U.S., over to Spain, and most recently, back to LatAm.
Miguel’s run in the U.S. was fruitful ($49.8 million), but the turn to his native Mexico was even bigger, bringing in $57.5 million in 20 shows. By the end of 2023, he had earned $141 million – still a way’s away from the all-time high, but enough to handily pass his own Mexico Por Siempre Tour from 2018-19 ($101.4 million) as his biggest tour yet.
Across stadiums in Latin America, Miguel added another $73 million in the early months of 2024, and another $65.6 million in North American arenas through mid-June. Twelve shows in Spain packed in $27.6 million, and his return to Central America padded the tour with another $10.7 million in five shows in August.
Not only is this Miguel’s highest-grossing tour, it’s his best-seller. At 2.194 million tickets so far, he has doubled (and then some) his previous run, where he moved 965,000 tickets. On the all-time leaderboard, he still trails Karol G’s 2.326 million, though he will easily pass that mark by the end of the month.
While Bad Bunny and Karol G had earned their all-time highs exclusively in stadiums around the world, Luis Miguel has mixed arenas and stadiums, with more than double the show count.
Already in unprecedented waters, Miguel has played another seven as-yet-unreported shows in Mexico and Las Vegas, with another 30 scheduled in Mexico through Nov. 25. The centerpiece of his remaining shows is a 10-show run at Mexico City’s Arena Ciudad de Mexico between Oct. 8-24. Seven shows at the same venue grossed $14.6 million last November, so his extended stint is expected to surpass that and be the entire tour’s biggest engagement.
Miguel’s 20 shows in Mexico last year averaged $2.873 million per date. Applying the same logic, the remaining dates (including September shows that he has played but not yet reported) could add another $100 million and make him the first Latin artist to stage a $400 million tour.
Dating back to a November 1991 concert at New York’s The Paramount, Miguel has grossed $633.1 million and sold 6.3 million tickets over 701 reported shows.
Over the course of Billboard Boxscore’s 40-year history, Latin music artists have made their mark on stage with sold-out tours across the Americas. Here, Billboard is running down the 10 highest-grossing concert tours by Latin acts – here, defined by artists eligible for Billboard’s Top Latin Albums and Hot Latin Songs charts – in the […]
The Federal Trade Commission is being urged to investigate technology companies that create tools for ticket scalpers that violate existing laws and drive up the price of concert tickets.
The warning and call to action comes by way of a letter signed by National Independent Talent Organizations president Jack Randall and executive director Nathaniel Marro, taking aim at the World Ticket Summit. Held in Nashville earlier this month, the annual conference is organized by the National Association of Ticket Brokers, the country’s largest member organization for professional ticket resellers and individuals who list and resell tickets on sites like StubHub and SeatGeek.
At this year’s summit, members of NITO – which represent independent talent agencies and management companies including Arrival Artists, High Road Touring, Paladin Artists, Q Prime, Red Light Management and TKO – “observed a sold-out exhibition hall filled with vendors selling and marketing products designed to bypass security measures for ticket purchases, in direct violation of the BOTS Act,” a Sept. 9 letter to Federal Trade Commission chair Lina Khan reads.
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That technology includes web browser extensions that set up multiple tabs masking a user’s IP address, proxy services that allow users to be logged in to multiple ticketing accounts from one location and virtual credit card services that bypass geographical restrictions on ticket sales, which are often put in place by event organizers to ensure fair access for local fans.
According to the letter, the use of this type of technology to procure concert tickets is a violation of the Better Online Ticket Sales (BOTS) Act of 2016 which prohibits scalpers from using technology that circumvents “a security measure, access control system, or other technological measure used to enforce ticket purchasing limits for events with over 200 attendees.”
Put more simply, most ticketing companies place a cap on how many tickets a fan can buy for a concert and the use of automated bots, proxy servers, VPNs and phantom credit cards to exceed purchase limits is a violation of the BOTS Act.
“The presence of these vendors at a conference specifically for ticket brokers strongly suggests that a substantial portion of attendees either currently use these services or are likely to do so in the near future,” the letter reads. “This widespread availability and apparent demand for tools that can circumvent ticket purchasing limits indicates that many, if not most, scalpers are operating in violation of the federal BOTS Act.”
The NATB’s executive director Gary Adler issued a lengthy statement in response to NITO’s letter, writing “The vast majority of technology exhibitors at the conference were inventory management systems that help ticket companies organize their tickets, offer them for resale, and help with pricing.”
“There are many friction points in ticketing,” Adler continued “and high-tech ways that players in the system try to monopolize every dollar spent on ticketing and to prevent the resale of tickets. For more than half of events there are lower cost options on the secondary market and some in the primary market don’t like seeing their previously sold tickets being offered for resale at deep discounts. Artists, venues, and primary ticketers abuse technology every day to create fake scarcity and deceive consumers into paying higher prices when really, they are secretly holding back tickets to slowly drip more on sale over time to cheat and fool the fan. This is most likely an illegal deceptive marketing and advertising practice, driven by artists, venues, and primary ticketing companies, that the FTC should immediately investigate.”
Adler notes that the NATB “advocated for the passage of the BOTS Act in 2016 as we fully support the banning of bots. There is no place in the system for illegal bot use. We stand for doing resale the right way and passing strong laws to protect fans and competition across the ticketing industry. If any exhibitors were offering technology that violates the BOTS Act, we want to know as they will not be welcomed back.”
Since its passage in 2017, the BOTs Act has only been enforced one time, in 2021, when three New York-based ticket brokers were charged with violating the law. The government’s enforcement of the BOTS Act has been an “abysmal failure” writes songwriter and music industry analyst Chris Castle, noting that StubHub’s scheduled IPO this fall was a tell-tale sign that the BOTS Act was “under-enforced.”
“Let’s face it – if there were no bots and no boiler room operations, StubHub probably wouldn’t have much of a business,” Castle wrote. Lawmakers including Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) have introduced legislation like the Mitigating Automated Internet Networks for (MAIN) Event Ticketing Act of 2023 which would force ticketing companies to be more proactive about reporting BOT usage, but those efforts have largely stalled in Congress.
NITO’s letter includes eight recommendations for rights holders and the FTC, calling for the regulator to subpoena the customer lists of “companies offering services that fall into the categories likely to facilitate BOTS Act violations” as well as increased enforcement actions, prioritizing “investigations into large-scale ticket reselling operations, focusing on those using multiple technologies to circumvent purchasing limits.”
By implementing these recommendations, the letter explains, “rights holders and the FTC can take significant steps towards curbing BOTS Act violations and ensuring fairer access to event tickets for consumers.”
Father John Misty has announced a run of dates in the U.K. for April 2025.
The dates come following the news of his upcoming sixth studio album Mahashmashana, set for release on November 22 via Sub Pop and Bella Union (UK & Europe).
Father John Misty – real name Josh Tillman – will perform in Edinburgh, Manchester, Brighton and London, with the final show to be held at the capital’s historic Royal Albert Hall on April 14. See the full tour dates below; tickets go on sale on September 27.
Misty also shared a new song “Screamland” which features Low’s Alan Spearhawk on guitar. The album was produced by Tillman and Drew Erickson, with executive production from frequent collaborator Jonathan Wilson. Watch the music video below.
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The news follows the release of Misty’s Greatish Hits: I Followed My Dreams and My Dreams Said to Crawl earlier this summer, a collection of back catalogue songs including “Real Love Baby”, his biggest hit on streaming.
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The collection also included “I Guess Time Makes Fools of Us All”, an eight-minute jazz-influenced song that will also appear on Mahashmashana.
Misty last released a studio album in 2022 with Chloë and The Next 20th Century which landed at No.2 on the Official U.K. Albums Chart and at No.28 on the Billboard 200.
The Los Angeles-based musician is currently on tour supporting country star Kacey Musgraves in the US. Earlier this year, he was a special guest of Lana Del Rey at her headline appearance at London’s Hyde Park.
Father John 2025 U.K. & Europe Tour Dates:
3 April – Sentrum Scene, Oslo, Norway4 April – Fållan, Stockholm, Sweden5 April – Opera House, Copenhagen, Denmark6 April – Huxley’s, Berlin, Germany8 April – La Cigale, Paris, France9 April – Ancienne Belgique, Brussels, Belgium10 April – TivoliVredenburg, Utrecht, Netherlands12 April – Usher Hall, Edinburgh, UK13 April – O2 Apollo, Manchester, UK14 April – Brighton Dome, Brighton, UK15 April – Royal Albert Hall London, UK
For more information and to purchase tickets, visit Father John Misty’s official website.
Ticketing company Lyte appears to have gone out of business, shutting down its website, laying off its staff and leaving a number of concert promoters unpaid for hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of tickets sold on the platform.
Lyte founder and chief executive Ant Taylor has resigned from the company, according to multiple sources, with an emergency board/creditors effort underway to try to identify a potential buyer that could repay the fans and promoters affected by shutdown, which one source said felt akin to being “ghosted.” Currently, the company’s website is offline and has been for days, having been replaced by an image that says “Be Back Soon,” with smaller text reading, “Our website is currently undergoing scheduled maintenance. We should be back shortly.”
Having launched the company in 2014, Taylor raised about $53 million in four major funding rounds, with his biggest investors believed to be Chamath Palihapitiya from Silicon Valley VC Social Capital and New York hedge fund manager Joseph Edelman. Neither Taylor nor representatives for Lyte responded to requests for comment.
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Lyte billed itself as a fan-to-fan ticket exchange where fans could list tickets to events they couldn’t attend and ethically resell those tickets to other fans wanting to attend a concert. But Lyte’s own clients say the company’s business model had changed and that the company helped promoters scalp their high-end tickets and VIP festival tickets — quietly splitting the profits with event organizers.
It wasn’t uncommon for a major indie festival promoter to have several hundred thousand dollars’ worth of ticketing inventory listed on the Lyte system, explained one attorney representing potentially more than a $1 million in cumulative claims against Lyte. High profile clients for Lyte included Baja Beach festival, the Lost Lands festival in Ohio, Pitchfork Music Festival and Newport Folk Festival, although it’s unclear which events are owed money by Lyte.
A worse fate potentially awaits clients who signed up for Lyte’s primary ticketing platform. As recently as Sept. 9 the Lyte blog was announcing new clients for that initiative, including Digilogue Days, an October event in Brooklyn that billed itself as a meeting point for “music executives, artists, creatives, students and aspiring professionals with the tools and knowledge to shape the future of the music industry.” Today, Digilogue Days’ ticketing page has the same “be back soon” message that has come to replace nearly all of Lyte’s known web footprint.
The worst-case scenario for any primary ticketing clients would be if Lyte went out of business without paying its clients any of the revenue from tickets it had sold on their behalf. For small event organizers, that could equal nearly all of an event’s revenue.
If Lyte has to file for insolvency protection, it would fall into the hands of a bankruptcy trustee to sort through the details. But attorneys for several festival clients are hoping to pull their clients’ money out of the venture before it goes into administration.
“It would be totally unacceptable if any of my clients’ money was co-mingled with Lyte’s operational funds,” said one attorney who did not wish to speak on the record. “If that happened, the board of directors will be forced to account for those funds, even if that means piercing the corporate veil and going after their ability to raise money.”
While often underappreciated commercially and critically during their turn-of-the-century peak, Sacramento alt-metal band Deftones has enjoyed an extended revival of interest in recent years, consistently ranking as one of the top-performing bands on streaming and hosting the Dia de los Deftones single-day festival every year since 2020.
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Now, the band is embarking on its first headline tour since 2022, and they’re visiting arenas across North America. Deftones will kick off the untitled 2025 trek at Portland’s Moda Center on Feb. 25, and then will hit legendary venues such as the Kia Forum in Los Angeles and Madison Square Garden in New York over the following month and a half, before wrapping at Boston’s TD Garden in April.
Guests on the tour will be Texas prog-metal veterans The Mars Volta and Boston nu-gazers Fleshwater. Tickets go on sale Friday (Sept. 20) at 10 a.m. local time, and will of course be followed with this year’s Dia de los Deftones festival in November, featuring such other acts as IDLES, Health and Sunny Day Real Estate (performing the entirety of its iconic 1994 debut album Diary).
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Watch a very Deftones trailer for the upcoming tour and see a full list of dates below:
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2025 TOUR DATES:
2/25 Portland, OR – Moda Center2/27 Seattle, WA – Climate Pledge Arena3/1 Sacramento, CA – Golden 1 Center3/4 San Francisco, CA – Chase Center3/6 Inglewood, CA – Kia Forum3/8 Las Vegas, NV MGM – Grand Garden Arena3/9 Phoenix, AZ – Footprint Center3/12 Austin, TX – Moody Center3/13 San Antonio, TX – Frost Bank Center3/15 Dallas, TX – American Airlines Center3/16 Houston, TX – Toyota Center3/18 Atlanta, GA – State Farm Arena3/20 Orlando, FL – Kia Center3/22 Sunrise, FL – Amerant Bank Arena3/24 Charlotte, NC – Spectrum Center3/26 Nashville, TN – Bridgestone Arena3/28 Indianapolis, IN – Gainbridge Fieldhouse3/29 Columbus, OH – Nationwide Arena3/31 Chicago, IL – United Center4/1 Detroit, MI – Little Caesars Arena4/3 New York, NY – Madison Square Garden4/4 Philadelphia, PA – Wells Fargo Center4/6 Washington, DC – Capital One Arena4/8 Boston, MA – TD Garden
