Touring
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For years, singer-songwriter Sierra Hull has checked two bags of music gear for free as part of a longstanding Southwest Airlines policy allowing two free checked bags per passenger. But when the troubled, cost-cutting airline announced March 11 that it would strike the musician-friendly perk, the bluegrass mandolinist was outraged.
“The policies they’ve changed over the last year or so have made it tougher for musicians,” Hull says. “Now there’s going to be an extra several hundred dollars for most bands just to get where they’re going. Festivals are going to have to start paying the bands even more for the band to even say yes — which means they’re going to have to raise the ticket price.”
The Southwest announcement, coming when touring costs are “definitely staggering,” as one top agent puts it — particularly buses, hotels, food and fuel — has frustrated artists prepping for spring and summer tours, especially in Nashville. “We’ve got dozens of people on the crew that utilize that airline regularly. Most people have one to two bags,” says Bill Orner, manager of Billy Strings, who’s scheduled to headline arenas, festivals and amphitheaters this summer — most of them after Southwest’s policy takes effect May 28. “Think of the financial implications on any given tour. I guess they’ve got a reason for it, but [it’s] certainly not ideal.”
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Although Southwest has yet to announce how much the checked bags will cost after May 28, Brian Ross, manager of Thievery Corporation, Blackalicious and others, estimates that a quartet traveling with two crew members will soon have to pay an additional $35 to $40 for each set of two bags, which adds up to $840 to $960 per round-trip flight. “It’s really bad,” he says. “You get diminishing benefits and increasing fees, and everything is getting like that on airlines.”
A-list touring stars won’t notice an additional $800 to $1,000 in costs, and smaller artists generally drive in vans and buses, meaning mid-level artists who play 1,500-to-2,000-seat theaters will be most impacted by Southwest’s policy change. “It’s a big bummer,” says Kevin Spellman, who manages bluegrass singer Molly Tuttle. He calls Southwest the “airline of choice for the musician community, particularly Nashville artists” — until now — and says artists traveling with a crew of 15 people could lose “a couple thousand dollars” from their bottom line. “If you’re doing really well, you’re trying to aim for 25% of the gross [ticket sales] as your profit margin,” he says. “It starts cutting into it tremendously.”
Reps for Southwest declined to comment, pointing to a company statement at a recent financial conference suggesting the change would lead to “significant new revenue initiatives.” The company took in $73 million from bag fees in 2023, according to the Department of Transportation, a crucial revenue source for an airline that laid off 1,750 employees in February. (Southwest will continue to offer two free bags for “A-List Preferred” customers.)
Some airlines see opportunity in Southwest’s change, although it’s too early to say whether they’ll go after the touring-musician community. On Tuesday (March 25), Frontier Airlines announced it would offer free bags for customers who book flights on its website, as well as “economy bundles” that include a free carry-on and other benefits. Kristi Gordon, owner of Fuzed Travel, which helps negotiate airfare, hotel and vehicle costs for touring artists, predicts top airlines such as American and United will pay close attention to Southwest’s revenue in the first two quarters of 2025 and consider promotions geared to lure the airline’s lost musician customers.
Until then, Gordon advises artists to sign up for frequent-flier programs at a particular airline and build up miles for future discounts. And if she could speak to a Southwest exec who authorized the free-bags policy change? “I would just say: ‘You lost an opportunity to have all the entertainment business.’”
The producers of four independent California festivals are offering a limited edition ticket that provides general admission access to the 2025 edition of each event.
Dubbed the “indepenDANCE Pass” the ticket is on offer for $599, approximately $1,400 less expensive than the cost of buying four separate tickets to each festival. A total of 100 indepenDANCE Passes are currently available, with profits split evenly between each event.
The passes are part of a campaign to bring attention to the state of independent music festivals, which have struggled following the pandemic due to rising costs of goods and services. The founders of each of the four festivals involved with the IndepenDANCE Pass recently gathered for a longform conversation about the state of the independent side of the festival industry.
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“Independent festivals have always been about community, and now we’re taking that to the next level,” Same Same But Different co-founder and CEO Brad Sweet says during the talk. “We pour everything we have into creating spaces where people can truly connect, dance freely, and experience something real, and now we’re uniting to create something bigger than any one festival, a collective that strengthens the entire scene and gives our community more access, more connection, and more unforgettable experiences across the festival season. By coming together, we’re making sure independent festivals don’t just survive, but evolve and flourish for years to come.”
Featuring dance, funk, global music and more, Joshua Tree Music Festival happens both this May 15-18 and October 9-12 (the pass is good for just one of the events) in Joshua Tree, Calif. Happening in Lake Perris, Calif. this Sept. 26-28, Same Same But Different has previously featured artists including Griz, Big Gigantic, Polo & Pan and Louis the Child, with the 2025 lineup to be announced in the coming months.
Meanwhile the longstanding house and techno festival Desert Hearts 2025 happens July 3-7 in Flagstaff, Ariz. The electronic-oriented Northern Nights, which has this year partnered with Dirtybird Campout, happens Cook’s Valley Campground in Northern California on July 18-20, with the lineup also to be announced in the coming months.
Forest Hills Stadium in Queens says it’s planning to move ahead with its 2025 concert season, amid reports that the New York Police Department (NYPD) has revoked the venue’s permits due to an ongoing conflict over noise complaints between the stadium and its residential neighbors.
“Forest Hills Stadium is moving forward with our 2025 concert schedule as planned and our permitting timeline is on its standard schedule,” reads a statement from the New York venue that was posted to social media on Sunday (May 23). “As happens every season, the vocal NIMBY minority of Forest Hills Gardens are attempting to roadblock yet another enjoyable season of music.”
The statement follows a report from the New York Post published Sunday that claimed the stadium — which has long been plagued by noise complaints from neighbors and in 2023 was hit by a lawsuit from the local homeowners association, the Forest Hills Garden Corporation (FHGC), seeking to shut down its summer concert program — had its sound amplification permits revoked by the NYPD last week due to an impasse in the conflict between the FHGC and the West Side Tennis Club, where the stadium is located. According to the article, the FHGC announced it would no longer grant the NYPD permission to close the streets around the stadium, which the FHGC privately owns, leaving the NYPD with no choice but to revoke the sound permits.
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Billboard has confirmed that the FHGC has refused to grant the NYPD permission to close the streets bordering the stadium for its upcoming summer concert season, essentially making it impossible for the department to do its job.
“This is a disagreement between the Forest Hills Garden Corporation (FHGC) and the West Side Tennis Club,” a spokesperson for the NYPD said in a statement provided to Billboard. “We understand that many people enjoy these concerts every summer, but we must be able to take appropriate action to keep people safe. We trust that the FHGC and the West Side Tennis Club will be able to reach an appropriate compromise.”
Despite the standoff, the venue says it still intends to move forward with the upcoming concert season that would include performances from Bloc Party, The Black Keys, Leon Bridges, Alabama Shakes, Tyler Childers and two nights of Phish.
In October 2024, a year after the FHGC filed its lawsuit, a judge dismissed five of the seven claims brought by the homeowners association, including claims that the West Side Tennis Club was in violation of its contract with the neighborhood and that it had unjustly profited from the stadium’s growing success. The ruling left only FHGC’s public and private nuisance claims intact, though the judge in the case, Joseph J. Esposito, did not find in FHGC’s favor on the merits of the nuisance claims. He merely held that they had stated a claim sufficient to survive the motion to dismiss, which they must now prove through discovery.
Concert promotion titan AEG Presents bolstered its presence in Music City with the late February opening of its flagship Nashville venue, The Pinnacle, located in the 19-acre, mixed-use Nashville Yards complex. Kacey Musgraves performed at the 4,500-person capacity, 88,500-square-feet concert venue’s inaugural concert on Feb. 27.
“We spent a lot of time going back and forth over who the first artist was going to be,” Mike DuCharme, regional vice president for AEG Presents, tells Billboard. “We loved the idea of having a female artist from Nashville that isn’t straight down the country lane but crosses demographics and music and has fans of all genres. She really hit the mark and did great. And the fact that her voice is so great, you really got a good feel for how the room can sound. There were times you could hear a pin drop, and it was incredible.”
AEG Presents’ new concert hall has been a decade in the works, and is owned by the Yards development, through a partnership between Southwest Value Partners and AEG Real Estate, with AEG Presents operating the venue. The Pinnacle joins a slate of other mid-sized AEG venues that have launched across the country, including Atlanta’s 2,300-capacity The Eastern, Boston’s 3,500-capacity Roadrunner, Brooklyn’s 1,800-capacity Brooklyn Steel, Denver’s 4,000-capacity Mission Ballroom and Los Angeles’ 4,000-capacity Shrine Expo Hall. AEG Presents just announced another addition to its set of venues, with an upcoming 4,000-capacity, as-yet-unnamed venue in Austin, Texas.
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“As we build these venues, they get more refined,” adds Brent Fedrizzi, president of AEG Presents’ North American regional offices. “We take 10 things from the last one we did and ask what we can do better. Every market has its own nuances and I think with Pinnacle, it’s the best thing we’ve done.”
The Pinnacle, helmed by general manager Katie Millar, also aids AEG Presents in bolstering its profile further in a town that has been largely dominated by Live Nation venues. Crucially, the venue’s 4,500-person capacity fills a void Nashville’s touring landscape for an indoor venue larger than the smaller clubs or venues such as Nashville’s Brooklyn Bowl (1,200-capacity) and Marathon Music Works (1,800 standing room capacity), or the 2,362-seat historic Ryman Auditorium, though not as massive as the up-to 20,000-capacity Bridgestone Arena. Though the 4,400-seat Grand Ole Opry House’s capacity is close to that of The Pinnacle, the new venue’s various configurations feature both seated and standing options.
“The sweet spot for a lot of touring acts and artists these days is that 3,500 to around 5,500 capacity,” Fedrizzi says. “As we roll these [venues] out, we’re looking at markets that are under-served.”
With The Pinnacle, AEG Presents was equally focused on creating a venue that can serve as a home spotlighting a breadth of musical styles in the city most famously known for country music. Jason Isbell is currently doing a multi-show run of solo concerts, while other artists with upcoming shows include 311, Alice in Chains, Wilco, Warren Zeiders, Zac Brown Band, Adam Ray, Megan Moroney, Jack White, Denzel Curry, JOHNNYSWIM and Santana.
“It’s a venue for everyone, for the community. We’re going to do it all — country, EDM, rock — we’ve already checked a lot of those boxes,” Fedrizzi says. “I think the market was under-served in that capacity, in that configuration. And then obviously even the EDM shows so far, whether it’s been Illenium or deadmau5, that crowd hasn’t really had a place in Nashville to go.”
The venue already has many shows booked through November. In addition to The Pinnacle, the Nashville Yards complex also houses AEG Presents’ regional office, along with the global touring team and Messina Touring Group’s Nashville office will move into Nashville Yards in July. L-Acoustics also announced it will have office space in the complex.
The Pinnacle’s easily accessible location has led to spontaneous concert bookings. “This being an industry town, the artists can actually just come down and see it,” Fedrizzi says.
“They love the production, the sight lines,” DuCharme says. “We’ve taken artists through to tour [when they] are there for other shows and then confirmed shows at shows. The agent will be down there watching another show and be like, ‘Yes, we’re playing here.’”
The venue also boasts top-shelf production and sound, with a K2 L-Acoustics sound system from Clair Global and Solotech lighting/video systems. The multi-level venue also features an upper level balcony and risers with seating.
The venue’s decor reflects the uniqueness of its Music City locale, with Emily Cox of Formation commissioning murals, wallpaper and installations from more than two dozen local Nashville artists to display throughout the venue’s hallways, restrooms, artist rooms and concourses.
The backstage areas received just as much attention as front of house, with multiple dressing rooms, each with its own decor. Artists have protected parking for buses, and just off the main stage is an area with seating for artists’ family and friends. An open-air rooftop patio offers opportunities for industry gatherings and intimate performances.
“It’s an industry town, and we know our peers and the people we work with day-to-day will be in the space,” Fedrizzi says. “How can we make their experience great? Because they may be going to three different shows in a night — how do we make that a great experience? We don’t have that at every single venue we do, because not every venue is in an industry town. We always have a VIP space, but Nashville in particular, we know that our peers and the people that we work with day to day are going to be in the space, so we thought about how we can make their experience appealing?”
“The other thing is, we had Carly Pearce sit in on Russell Dickerson’s show [on March 14],” DuCharme says. “There are so many special guests who sit in with someone else because of friendships, or they ask to do a song. Having a place where those artists can host their guests and have them easily come out to do a song, that has been really well-received.”
Beyond solely concerts, the venue is meant as a multipurpose venue, and is wired for television and broadcast, making it a potential space for various televised and livestreamed events.
“We want to have those ACM and CMA-type events and all those things Nashville is known for,” Fedrizzi says. “When designing the space, we very much contemplated how do we activate the space to complement what is happening in spaces like CMA Fest or the Opry.”
The Jonas Brothers have unveiled the North American dates for their upcoming 20th anniversary tour.
On Sunday (March 23), the sibling trio revealed the U.S. and Canadian itinerary for their JONAS20: Living the Dream Tour, which will see them perform at stadiums and arenas across both countries starting this summer.
The 43-date tour launches on Aug. 10 at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., and concludes on Nov. 14 at Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Conn. The full list of dates, announced during JONASCON in New Jersey, can be found below.
“We’re beyond excited to hit the road and celebrate 20 years of music,” the Jonas Brothers said in a statement. “Our fans have been with us through every chapter, and this tour is our way of honoring them, the memories we’ve made, and the ones we’ll create together. We can’t wait to make this our biggest, most unforgettable tour yet.”
Tickets for the JONAS20: Living the Dream Tour go on sale March 28 at ticketmaster.com. Opening acts in select cities include Marshmello, The All-American Rejects and Boys Like Girls.
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The Jonas Brothers are also celebrating the release of their upbeat new single “Love Me To Heaven.” The upbeat track serves as the trio’s first new release of the year, following previous collaborations with Marshmello and Rascal Flatts.
In addition to rolling out the tour dates, JONASCON was an extravaganza of all things JoBro. The event features live performances, DJ sets, Q&A panels, fan activations, pop-up surprises, retail takeovers, a Jonas trading post, trivia, games, immersive experiences, an interactive art installation, keynote event, karaoke, a Camp Rock bar, special guests, mini golf and exclusive merch.
Check out the Jonas Brothers’ JONAS20: Living the Dream Tour dates below.
Aug. 10: East Rutherford N.J. (MetLife Stadium)Aug. 12: Washington, D.C. (Nationals Park)Aug. 14: Philadelphia (Citizens Bank Park)Aug. 17: Hershey, Pa. (Hersheypark Stadium)Aug. 21: Toronto (Rogers Centre)Aug. 23: Boston (Fenway Park)Aug. 26: Chicago (Wrigley Field)Aug. 28: Detroit (Comerica Park)Aug. 31: Arlington, Texas (Globe Life Field)Sept. 6: Los Angeles (Dodger Stadium)Sept. 18: Vancouver (Rogers Arena)Sept. 20: Portland, Ore. (Moda Center)Sept. 22: Seattle (Climate Pledge Arena)Sept. 25: San Francisco (Chase Center)Sept. 26: Sacramento, Calif. (Golden 1 Center)Sept. 28: Phoenix (PHX Arena)Oct. 2: Denver (Ball Arena)Oct. 4: Omaha, Neb. (CHI Health Center)Oct. 5: Des Moines, Iowa (Wells Fargo Arena)Oct. 7: Kansas City, Mo. (T-Mobile Center)Oct. 8: St. Louis (Enterprise Center)Oct. 10: St. Paul, Minn. (Xcel Energy Center)Oct. 12: Milwaukee (Fiserv Forum)Oct. 14: Nashville (Bridgestone Arena)Oct. 16: Tulsa, Okla. (BOK Center)Oct. 17: Austin, Texas (Moody Center)Oct. 18: San Antonio, Texas (Frost Bank Center)Oct. 19: Houston (Toyota Center)Oct. 22: Tampa, Fla. (Amalie Arena)Oct. 24: Sunrise, Fla. (Amerant Bank Arena)Oct. 26: Orlando, Fla. (Kia Center)Oct. 28: Atlanta (State Farm Arena)Oct. 29: Raleigh, N.C. (Lenovo Center)Nov. 1: Lexington, Ky. (Rupp Arena)Nov. 2: Indianapolis (Gainbridge Fieldhouse)Nov. 4: Knoxville, Tenn. (Thompson-Boling Arena at Food City Center)Nov. 5: Charlotte, N.C. (Spectrum Center)Nov. 6: Columbia, S.C. (Colonial Life Arena)Nov. 8: Columbus, Ohio (Schottenstein Center)Nov. 9: Buffalo, N.Y. (KeyBank Center)Nov. 11: Cleveland (Rocket Arena)Nov. 12: Pittsburgh (PPG Paints Arena)Nov. 14: Uncasville, Conn. (Mohegan Sun Arena)
On Friday (March 21), secondary ticketing marketplace StubHub filed for an initial public offering (IPO) with the SEC that the company hopes will value it at $16.5 billion.
A pioneer in online ticket re-selling, StubHub had “gross merchandise sales” (GMS) — or the total price customers paid for the transaction and fulfillment — of $8.7 billion in 2024, a 27% increase from 2023. For the year, it sold more than 40 million tickets from more than 1 million unique sellers across 200 countries and territories.
Revenue reached $1.77 billion in 2024, up 29.4% from 2023, while net loss was $2.8 million. Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA), which strips out non-cash expenses, was $298.7 million, down nearly 16% from $353.9 million in 2023. Long-term debt stands at $2.33 billion — nearly eight times last year’s adjusted EBITDA.
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Proceeds from the IPO will primarily go toward StubHub’s debt, with the remainder going toward general corporate purposes such as working capital, operating expenses and capital expenses. StubHub said it may use a portion of the proceeds for acquisitions or investments in products or technologies.
StubHub believes it is the leader in secondary ticketing, according to its S-1 filing on Friday. The company has also made a foray into primary ticketing, which generated more than $100 million in GMS in 2024. “We believe our value proposition, providing broadened distribution and superior pricing intelligence through an open distribution model, is well-positioned to attract more content rights holders to use our direct issuance solution,” the company stated in the filing.
StubHub does more business than most of its competitors. Vivid Seats had gross transaction value (GTV) of $3.9 billion in 2024 while Eventbrite, a primary ticketing platform, had GTV of $3.2 billion last year. Ticketmaster, which does not break out its primary and secondary ticketing, had GTV of $34.7 billion.
Launched in 2000 by Erik Baker, StubHub was acquired by eBay in 2007. Baker then launched a competing secondary ticketing platform in Europe, Viagogo, which purchased StubHub in 2020. Ahead of the IPO, Baker owns approximately 5% of Class A shares and 100% of Class B shares, leaving him with more than 90% of the voting rights. Other major holders of Class A shares include Madrone Partners (27.1%), WestCap Management (11.0%), Bessemer Venture Partners (9.6%), PointState Capital (5.6%) and Declaration Partners (5.3%).
Spotify continued its push into the live music business this week with the launch of Concerts Near You, a personalized playlist designed to help artists market and build awareness for their upcoming shows. Company officials say the playlist will update every Wednesday with 30 new tracks from artists performing near Spotify users based on the […]
Before her 2024 world tour had wrapped up, Tate McRae already had thoughts on how to level up her next live outing. “It’s a lot of back and forth and a lot of just brain dumping,” she says of her scattered ideating process with her creative director, Parker Genoway. “I come with a whole bunch of mood boards and random ideas… You dream as big as you can until you get the budget, then you have to narrow it down.”
Fortunately for McRae, that budget expanded, thanks to a massive first quarter of 2025. The 21-year-old singer’s So Close to What, her most mature and introspective album to date, arrived in February and gave McRae her first No. 1 entry on the Billboard 200, with 177,000 equivalent album units earned — which at the time was the largest debut week for a studio album by a woman artist in five months — according to Luminate.
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The chart-topping debut — along with a dozen Billboard Hot 100 entries from So Close to What and a high-octane performance of top 20 hit “Sports Car” on Saturday Night Live — helped cement McRae’s leap to pop’s A-list. It also set up her Miss Possessive arena tour, which began in Mexico City on March 18 and was followed by a handful of South American dates. She will head to Europe in May and will begin a North American run in Vancouver in August.
McRae pulled from a wide range of influences for her tour themes, including classic dance showcases. “It’s been really fun to dive into old musicals and old TV shows,” she says, “and bring out Fosse references and old Chicago references, and tap into that geeky musical side I think we all have.”
Meanwhile, Genoway — who collaborated with McRae on her Think Later tour and spearheaded her SNL and The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon performances earlier this year — points to McRae’s “It’s ok I’m ok” music video as an example of the singer’s opposing aesthetics, showcasing the intersection of grungy and glamorous. McRae says, “I’m referencing rap shows, I’m referencing Kendrick [Lamar] shows, Post Malone shows, and then I want to feel like a glam pop girl. It’s finding a cool in-between.”
The new tour includes a “thrust stage” in the shape of a giant T, and there are also cranes involved. “You try to make people walk in and be like, ‘What are we looking at right now?,’ and create your own world in there,” McRae says. Genoway adds that McRae should “feel like she’s in the middle of everything” surrounding the show, which also includes a B-stage and a mix of stage elevations.
As for McRae’s dance skills, “[Her] technical ability is unmatched,” says Genoway, who works as part of Silent House Productions. “Tate levels everyone up who works with her. She’s going to be at rehearsals late at night and so are you. She’s going to work hard and so are you.”
And although McRae is playing her biggest venues to date, her preshow routine has remained consistent. “I always take one Grether’s Pastille and suck on it,” she explains. Prior to a group prayer and a moment of meditation, McRae will warm up her voice by performing the ad-libs to Rihanna’s “B—h Better Have My Money.” “My dancers probably think I’m f–king crazy,” she says with a chuckle.
This story appears in the March 22, 2025, issue of Billboard.
Shakira‘s series of concerts in Mexico as part of her international tour Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran (Women Don’t Cry Anymore) marked her highly anticipated return after a seven-year absence and earned the Colombian superstar several unprecedented records. The tour also set a historic precedent by boosting tourism and generating millions in economic revenue across the three major cities of the country, which has the second-largest economy in Latin America after Brazil.
Among the many achievements La Loba accomplished in Mexico with her seventh and most ambitious international tour, the sale of 645,000 tickets for her 11 scheduled concerts stands out, according to figures from promoter OCESA. Of those tickets, 455,000 were for seven shows at Mexico City’s Estadio GNP Seguros (March 19, 21, 23, 25, 27, 28, and 30), marking the highest number of performances by any artist at this iconic venue (formerly known as Foro Sol), which has hosted stars like Paul McCartney, Coldplay, Taylor Swift, and Metallica.
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Additionally, 90,000 tickets were sold for her two concerts at the Estadio Akron in Guadalajara (March 16 and 17), while another 100,000 corresponded to two dates at the Estadio BBVA in Monterrey (March 12 and 13), where the Mexican leg of her tour kicked off.
Ticketmaster México reports that 2.5 million people visited its website to search for tickets to Shakira’s concerts since the tour was announced in the country last October, according to data provided to Billboard Español. This makes her the most searched act on Ticketmaster over the past year, according to the ticketing company.
“Of the 90,000 tickets sold for Estadio Akron, 37,000 were purchased outside the city, which implies tourism,” Gustavo Staufert, general director of the Guadalajara Visitors and Conventions Office (OFVC, by its acronym in Spanish), told Billboard Español, citing figures from OCESA and Ticketmaster México. “If we talk about double hotel occupancy, we’re looking at 40,000 rooms per night, which would generate around 80 million pesos (approximately $4 million) in direct revenue for hotels, and an estimated tourism revenue of 900 million pesos (approximately $44.4 million).”
The tour supporting Shakira’s album Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran has generated significant buzz in the Mexican destinations it has reached. Mexico City serves as the epicenter of the Latin American leg, where the seven scheduled shows at the Estadio GNP Seguros are expected to generate an estimated economic impact of 5.5 billion pesos (approximately $275 million), according to data from the CDMX Secretariat of Tourism provided to Billboard Español. “That figure only accounts for lodging, restaurants, and nightlife venues; it does not include revenue from ticket sales,” clarified Mexico City’s Tourism Secretary, Alejandra Frausto, in an interview.
In Mexico City, the show by the “Antología” singer is also generating around 20,000 jobs in logistics, security, transportation, and production, benefiting workers across various sectors such as hospitality, restaurants, and airlines, as well as street vendors and small businesses near the venues, noted Frausto.
According to data from Ticketmaster, between 30% and 40% of attendees at Shakira’s concerts in Mexico travel from another state in the country to one of the three cities hosting the shows. A request for information from Billboard Español to the Nuevo León Secretariat of Tourism and the Nuevo León Tourism Development Corporation (Codetur) regarding the economic impact of Shakira’s visit to Monterrey had not been answered at the time of publication.
A world-class show that “is worth it all”
To follow Shakira’s tour across Mexico, “her pack” goes to great lengths. That’s the case of Édgar Lima, a chemical engineer from Mexico City, who will attend all 11 dates his idol is performing in the country. In an interview with the newspaper Reforma, the young fan shared that he spent nearly 80,000 pesos (about $4,000) just on tickets, adding another 12,000 pesos (approximately $600) for transportation and accommodation in Guadalajara and Monterrey.
Experts point out that hosting shows featuring major music stars like the Colombian superstar not only mobilizes her fans but also brings benefits to the local economy and strengthens connectivity between national and international destinations.
The travel company Despegar, a sponsor of the tour, reported a significant increase in interest for flights and accommodations in the three main Mexican cities included in the tour, with an average growth of 43% during the concert dates (March 12 to 30). “Monterrey stood out with a 66% increase in hotel demand,” the company detailed in a statement.
The company added that most travelers to these cities came from Mexico City, Veracruz, Chihuahua, Mérida, and Cancún. Meanwhile, Frausto noted that Mexico City welcomed visitors from across the country, as well as international travelers from the United States, El Salvador, Colombia, and Peru.
A curious fact brought by the Colombian artist’s visit to Mexico was an increase in hotel and lodging reservations in the three Mexican cities hosting *Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran* coming from Las Vegas. “Tourism and music have always been connected, and Shakira’s return to Mexico is a clear example of how major events drive traveler mobility,” said Santiago Elijovich, VP & Country Manager Mexico at Despegar, as quoted in the statement.
Édgar Lima claims that every peso spent on attending Shakira’s 11 concerts in Mexico is worth it. “I believe she puts on a world-class show, and seeing them all makes me think that every investment is worth it and that every peso spent was the best decision I could make.”
As the concert business soars to new heights, five of its most powerful women have been on a tear. As leading agents across five top booking agencies, Jenna Adler, Lucy Dickins, Samantha Kirby Yoh, Cara Lewis and Marsha Vlasic serve as tour architects and chief dealmakers to the stars, shaping the live-music landscape while helping their artist clients build their brands and broaden their businesses beyond music to sustain their careers.
With her client Adele, Dickins helped create a 75,000-capacity Munich venue purpose-built for the superstar’s 10 August 2024 shows (and aptly named Adele Arena). “I don’t think anyone else has ever done that,” Dickins jokes over Zoom. Lewis famously got a shoutout in 1987’s “Paid in Full,” on which Eric B. and Rakim explain, “Cara Lewis is our agent … and together we get paid in full.” The hip-hop touring powerhouse’s wins go back decades — and include moments like Eminem’s first-ever show outside Detroit in 1999.
When we speak, Adler has just returned home from a trip to Dubai with her client Jennifer Lopez and expounds on the new heights that Deftones — “the first band I ever signed” — are currently achieving. Vlasic casually mentions that “Neil” — as in longtime client Neil Young — recently called to discuss his upcoming coastal tour. And Kirby Yoh is keen to chat about LCD Soundsystem’s recent Los Angeles and New York residencies, which encompassed 20 shows and which she booked for the band that she has helped guide through arenas, festival headlining slots and beyond over the years.
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Their rosters are deep, their wins are many, and their reputations as leaders not just in the “female agent space” but the world of agents, period, are renowned. While each works for a different company — Kirby Yoh is a UTA partner and its co-head of global music, Dickins is WME’s global head of contemporary music and touring, Adler is a music touring agent at CAA, Lewis is founder and CEO of Cara Lewis Group, and Vlasic is the co-chair of Independent Artist Group’s music division — there’s a clear kinship among them, with the five women throwing out adjectives like “legendary,” “chic,” “magnificent” and “respected” when referring to one another.
“I hate losing,” Adler says. “But at the same time, I’d rather lose to one of them than to any of my male counterparts.”
Here, the five discuss their long careers, juggling their professions with motherhood and how agencies are changing for artists and female executives alike.
Jenna Adler, whose clients include Jennifer Lopez, Doja Cat, Charli xcx, Shaboozey and Deftones.
Myles Hendrik
In terms of working with well-established touring acts, how do you guide an artist through a long career? How do you manage demand as an artist evolves?
Samantha Kirby Yoh: The No. 1 thing is partnering with an artist. You’ve really got to listen to what their vision is, what their priorities and concerns are. Those change over the years. Cyndi Lauper had a lifelong dream of playing an arena tour. She’d never done arenas and also wanted to do a spectacular presentation in regard to her life’s work. It’s not guiding so much as listening and then putting it together and being in true partnership with the manager and artist.
Jenna Adler: You can’t just be a transactional agent. It’s never going to last that way. You have to be really passionate because at the end of the day, we’re selling.
Cara Lewis: Once an artist’s fan base has solidified, doors open. It is about coming up with different opportunities that align with that artist to further enhance the brand and continue adding to their longevity. That can be as simple as playing larger venues, adding a sponsor or doing a brand partnership that increases awareness and grows the fan base … The ultimate goal is longevity and the ability to reinvent and hold fans’ attention throughout the evolution of a career.
Marsha Vlasic: To be honest with you, it’s not mathematics and it’s not chemistry. It’s pretty much instinct. I’m very confident in telling [artists] what I think they should do. I’m not afraid of them. A lot of people tiptoe around artists. Even certain managers are afraid to talk to their own artists. But once you go through a certain number of years and earn a certain amount of respect, then artists reach out to you and trust you.
Lucy Dickins: It’s about building a strong, authentic relationship. I need to understand an artist’s vision and figure out how to tell that story. From when we’re starting to work together to when they become huge clients, authenticity is, for me, the most important thing because I think people can see through [anything inauthentic].
Lucy Dickins, whose clients include Adele, Billie Eilish, Olivia Rodrigo, James Blake and Lola Young.
Courtesy of WME
What’s your philosophy on artist development?
Dickins: You’ve got to build a solid foundation that allows them to grow, experiment and evolve, while they’re also grounded and true to what they are. It’s not one size fits all. My thing is always just focusing on empowering them with the tools, knowledge and support they need to make informed decisions and trust their instincts. I’m a gut person, so for me, it’s like, “Go with what you want and just be authentic.”
Vlasic: I worry about taking that leap of faith too quick, too big, and then you’re f–ked. Artist development to me is turning people away, selling out, having a great show … Again, a lot of it is instinct.
Lewis: Throughout my career, I have always been at the forefront of artist development, championing female artists. In the early stages of an artist’s career, you have to know how to capture the urgency, which is all about strategically planning based on artist analytics, packaging and, of course, ticket pricing.
Kirby Yoh: My philosophy is to listen and tell the story of who they are. If there is a deep love in regard to beats, it’s about where we can get them DJ’ing in the warehouse and doing a remix. Every step and play have to be intentional and authentically build on the lore of who they are. And don’t miss steps. You have to do the steps to build your community with you so they feel they’re on the journey with you all the way.
Are festivals still effective in breaking new artists?
Adler: For me, it’s about the long game and not taking festival money so fast, not even looking at festivals until we have a bit of control over where we want to play. I always say we should never play a festival before four o’clock because before four, you’re playing for the vanity of it. Instead, let’s go out and do the hard work and create our own fan base so we can point to a scoreboard and say, “I sold this and that out. This isn’t a favor.” I don’t care about doing all these festivals. There are always exceptions, but my go-to is not worrying about being on a poster in a [small font size] just to say we’re there. Let’s go and sell out a 300-seat club.
Vlasic: I don’t know what else we have to break a new artist. Having an artist’s name on a festival poster is very important. All promoters look at who’s on there, and at least the emerging artists can play to a bigger audience than they would if they went on the club scene and did 300 a night.
Kirby Yoh: I love festivals. It depends on what festival it is. The smaller festivals, like the 20,000-capacity, are doing great. If you look at [San Francisco dance festival] Portola and [festival creator] Danny [Bell’s] exceptional skill set as a curator, it doesn’t even break artists but brings people who only heard of X, Y or Z DJ and then they suddenly hear the artists that inspired that DJ. It takes them on a kind of learning [journey]. [Portola] has done that exceptionally.
Dickins: I think it’s arguable to say if a festival breaks an artist, whereas before it used to be really important. Now a lot of artists on the way up ask if it’s more important to do their own show and build their own brand. If you’re in the opening slot on a stage or up against a load of clashes, what are you really getting out of that? I don’t know. As opposed to doing your own show with your core fan base or attracting people coming to see you build your brand.
But if you’re a bigger artist, they’re still huge milestones because they bring massive exposure and the chance to reach global audiences. And there are smaller festivals, or genre-specific festivals, that are becoming more prominent. Doechii played Camp Flog Gnaw last year; that was a huge moment. The big ones are good for the bigger ones, and the more bespoke, genre-specific ones are becoming more prominent for the smaller artists.
Samantha Kirby Yoh, whose clients include LCD Soundsystem, Björk, Rosalía, FKA twigs and St. Vincent.
Courtesy of UTA
How are you seeing artists handle ticket pricing? In regard to the all-in approach where customers only see the final cost, is it important for fans to know the face value that artists are charging before ticketing fees?
Vlasic: None of my artists want fans to be pissed off because they think they’re charging too much. The thing is, somebody’s going to be miserable about something all the time. That’s my feeling on ticket pricing. With older artists, where it may be their last tours, they don’t want to go out just for the fun of being on the road. The road is no longer something [those artists] are dying to do, but this is their means of income. They don’t want to piss people off, but they want to maximize it.
Lewis: It all depends on artist, market, viability and urgency. Keep prices low, within reason and without compromising [an artist’s] ability to tour and offer an innovative production. Be cognizant of ticketing fees. Know what the competitive acts are charging and make an analysis of the sales and how the scaling is related to the result. Understand that each market has different needs due to the economy and different urgency.
Dickins: International markets tend to be much more cautious [than in the United States]. But ticket fees are a huge thing. At the International Live Music Conference in London, everyone was telling me that there are major concerns around ticket fees and the lack of transparency because fans feel misled when those additional fees are tacked on at checkout.
Kirby Yoh: I think most artists want the experience to be as easy as possible. When you go to buy a ticket for your favorite artist’s show and you’ve got $100 in your pocket, you want the total checkout cost to be $100.
Adler: I am so sensitive to ticket pricing because I look around like, “How can all these people afford all these shows?” Yet every show is selling out, even though the average ticket price is north of $100. I always try to go on the lower side, almost to a fault. I get a lot of pushback because they say I’m leaving money for scalpers to come in. I don’t want that. It’s such a delicate balance.
Cara Lewis, whose clients include Eminem, Travis Scott, Erykah Badu, Khalid and Don Toliver.
Laura Rose
You’re all so well established. How has your job changed over the years?
Adler: The biggest difference I see is that now the artist wants a relationship with their whole team. When I started, none of the agents had direct relationships with their artists. Agents always had to go through a manager. Now artists want to be able to pick up the phone and talk to their agent.
Dickins: When I was first booking tours, there was a load of in-market stuff you never paid much attention to that now you do because the look goes everywhere. Your first look is really important because that can play into stuff later on in a career. It’s way more involved, much more detail-oriented and much more strategic.
Lewis: Social media has changed our lives. It is the key to it all and has changed the way we market and sell everything. Professional networking platforms have given us resources to connect with anyone at any time about anything.
Vlasic: I think the pandemic changed things more than how long I’ve been in the business. Since the pandemic, the whole structure of the business is different in terms of the back-office stuff. I have a beautiful office. I rarely go there. I don’t have a schedule. Maybe I’ve always beat my own drum in terms of being at a company, but the company structure and routine have changed drastically.
Most of you have children. What is it like doing your job as a mother?
Vlasic: I don’t know how I did it. I seriously don’t. I didn’t have family that I could call at any given moment. My husband had his own thing going. I went home almost every night, made sure they had dinner and the homework was done, and then I went out. I don’t know how the girls do it now, but the difference is, if you’re an agent at most companies, you don’t have to be in the office for a certain amount of hours like I did. I remember one time one of my sons was really sick, and I was staying home to get the test results from the doctor … My boss at the time called me and said, “I hope you realize you should be working regular hours,” knowing my son was sick. That wouldn’t happen now.
Adler: I have 23- and 25-year-old sons, and CAA allowed me to [raise them] with such seamless patience. They were incredibly supportive even before it was a thing. I nursed every day, my kids came in, but that was because [CAA managing director] Rob Light had five kids, and he was a great dad. He understood. All the guys here had kids and understood it was family first. I was really lucky in that way.
Dickins: As a female agent, the sacrifices I have to make with a young family are huge. It’s something I battle on a daily basis. I got back from London two days ago. I go to Australia on Sunday, I come back for one day, then I go to London for two days. When I look at men in my positions, they don’t have the guilt that I have … My husband deserves a f–king award because he has to hold the fort all the time. When my 9-year-old is crying because she doesn’t want me to go away and I have to go because I have to spend time with a client, it’s tough. I think that’s why, in the touring aspect, it’s especially hard for women.
Marsha Vlasic, whose clients include Neil Young, The Strokes, Cage the Elephant, Norah Jones and Elvis Costello.
Kat Stanas
In recent years, it feels like the glass ceiling has been broken in agenting, and your careers are a testament to that. Does that feel true? How could this world be more supportive of women?
Vlasic: When I was starting out, I didn’t know I was any different. I didn’t know people viewed me as “You’re one of the only women.” I just worked hard and was determined. There are times I’ll come off a panel and a young girl will come up and say, “It’s so hard for us as women.” I’m thinking, “What the f–k are you talking about?” There are more women agents, more women managers, more women musicians. Don’t use that as an excuse.
Kirby Yoh: I think it has become more supportive to women, but there’s still a lot more to do. There need to be more opportunities, full stop. But we’re getting there. More people are hiring women. More people are empowering them with tools and skills, and more of us are pulling our sisters with us in a good way, like, “Come to the studio with me. Come to the show.”
Lewis: [Billboard’s] Women in Music [has] been an amazing platform not only honoring the talent but also bringing awareness to the behind-the-scenes executives pushing the industry forward. We need more of this. When you put your heart and soul into all that you do and succeed at it, it should raise you up, not keep you stagnant at a company.
Adler: It used to be that the males would pit us against each other because the women weren’t close to each other and there were very few slots. It’s taken a long time to change the narrative of “She can’t be in leadership because she doesn’t get along with so-and-so.”
I don’t know if I should say this, but I’m going to. Women in Music is such a powerful issue. There are few places to celebrate what we do. On the other hand, I say to myself, “But I should be part of the overall list.” I play with the boys every single day. I appreciate all of it and it means so much to me, but that’s where I am today: I love my female sisterhood, but I can also play with everybody.
This story appears in the March 22, 2025, issue of Billboard.