Touring
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Austin-based booking and live music management software company Prism.FM has secured $5 million in Series B funding, the company announced.
Andrew Lindner, founding partner of Frontier Growth, led the effort, personally investing $1.55 million through a syndicate investment pool with Connor Ryan and other members of Frontier Growth’s ecosystem. Existing investors also participated in the round including Stephen Cook, Jay Jensen, Kip Mclanahan, Advantage Capital, Rich Arnesen and more.
The new capital will be invested in product, engineering, and go-to-market strategy for the industry leading platform that brings venues, agencies, and promoters together in one system. Prism’s CEO and founder Matt Ford says that Prism has already been used to plan hundreds of thousands of shows at over 10,000 venues worldwide.
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“We have seen unprecedented growth after supporting the live music industry during the pandemic,” says Ford, chief executive officer at Prism. “We saw the music industry nearly collapse and were fortunate to be in a position to help. We were one of the first funders of NIVA, continued investing in our product, and worked out payment arrangements with customers who were struggling. We will continue to stand with the industry and grow our product to help live music thrive.”
In addition to unprecedented growth in the talent buying ecosystem, Prism has also found significant traction in new market segments like touring promoters, performing arts centers, and Broadway presenters.
Lindner also recently made a $30 million investment in live music software platform at Venu, through Frontier Growth.
“Matt and I have a shared passion for the music industry,” says Lindner. “It’s an industry that is rapidly evolving and adopting technology at an accelerating pace. The Prism team has shown a deep commitment to supporting live music and have a real connection with their end users. Their platform gives promoters and independent venue operators a better way to manage the critical function of talent acquisition.”
Ford has launched multiple software companies servicing the live music industry, such as spotlight.fm and Solstice. He has also started and ran a concert promoter business, organizing an annual festival and booking thousands of shows annually at various venues in Austin, Texas.
Keyshia Cole, whose slate of hits includes “Love,” “Let It Go,” “Heaven Sent” and “I Remember,” will headline the forthcoming “Love Hard” tour. Joining the singer/songwriter on the 24-market trek is fellow Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter Trey Songz with featured guests Jaheim and K. Michelle.
Presented in partnership with the Black Promoters Collective (BPC), the Love Hard tour will kick off Feb. 22 in Macon, Georgia. Stops along the way include Atlanta, Chicago, Brooklyn, Houston, Las Vegas and Los Angeles, before the tour wraps in Southaven, Mississippi on April 14.In a press release, Cole said, “I am beyond excited to announce the Love Hard tour and to be collaborating with the Black Promoters Collective. This tour is a true labor of love and I’m looking forward to connecting with my fans, sharing new memories and healing through music.”
Noted BPC president Shelby Joyner, “Keyshia Cole ignited the music scene with a passion in R&B reminiscent of the soul singers of the past. Her captivating tone and lyrical prowess instantly drew me in. I am thrilled to join forces with her on the Love Hard tour, where the legacy of soulful storytelling continues to unfold.”
Earlier this year, Cole’s life and career were spotlighted in the Lifetime-produced scripted biopic Keyshia Cole: This Is My Story. Presently working on her eighth studio album, the Grammy-nominated artist is also featured on the soundtrack for the upcoming theatrical musical The Color Purple and on an anticipated collaboration with Nicki Minaj and Monica for the deluxe version of Minaj’s The Pink Print 2 album.
Songz notched his first Hot 100 top 10 with “Say (Aah)” featuring Fabolous in 2010. The Grammy-nominated singer’s other hits include “Bottoms Up” featuring Nicki Minaj, “Can’t Be Friends,” “I Invented Sex” featuring Drake and “Neighbors Know My Name.” Fellow Grammy-nominated artist Jaheim is known for fan faves such as “Put That Woman First,” “Fabulous” and “Ain’t Leavin’ Without You.” And K. Michelle, the singer-songwriter behind songs such as “Love ‘Em All,” “V.S.O.P.” and “Can’t Raise a Man,” scored a No. 1 Adult R&B Airplay hit last year with “Scooch.” The latter song is from Michelle’s self-proclaimed final R&B album, I’m the Problem.
Tickets for the Love Hard tour will be available to the general public today (Dec. 15) at 10 a.m. local time here.

This year, country music’s popularity has not only surged in the United States, but globally as well.
No one knows that better than Luke Combs. As part of his WME-booked 44-show 2023 tour, the superstar played in 16 countries, one of the most expansive outings ever by a country artist. In addition to sold-out stadium dates in the U.S., Combs spent August through October playing 23 sold-out shows — primarily in arenas — in New Zealand, Australia and in 12 European countries.
Combs’ efforts have earned him the Country Music Association’s 2023 international artist achievement award, which recognizes outstanding achievements by a U.S.-based artist who has demonstrated significant growth and development outside of the U.S., and has helped promote the country music industry.
The CMA took advantage of Combs’ tour to find out more about country music’s international fans and to help spread the word of the genre’s popularity abroad by embedding Milly Olykan, CMA’s vp of international relations and development on several tour dates.
Unlike pop and rock artists, country artists haven’t toured internationally as often, but with streaming dominating discovery, borders have come down, making it easier for international audiences to learn about country artists.
Combs’ ticket sales were propelled by soaring streaming numbers for country acts like him, Morgan Wallen and Lainey Wilson internationally. On-demand audio and video streams for country music are up 24% in the U.S. through the third quarter of 2023 over the same time frame last year, according to data provided to the CMA by Luminate, and other territories are seeing even bigger growth. The U.K. experienced 34.7% growth in country music streaming over the same time, with September breaking the record for most country streams in a month at 213 million. Germany saw 33% growth and Canada 32% growth.
Combs’ audience has been growing steadily internationally. The two-time CMA entertainer of the year has accumulated more than 5 billion streams outside of the U.S. over the last six years, according to his label, Sony Music Nashville. In addition to expected strong markets such as Canada and Australia, Combs has seen tremendous growth in other territories, including year-over-year streaming increases of 128% in Ireland and 166% in the Netherlands and 130% in Sweden, partially boosted by the success of his international hit cover of Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Car.”
Combs’ manager, Make Wake’s Chris Kappy, studied the analytics, but he also was aware of the international demand for Combs based on anecdotal evidence, including emails from Combs’ passionate base, social media and fans who were traveling from overseas to U.S. dates. “When I’m seeing ‘Luke, come to Sweden,’ ‘Come to New Zealand,’ and you look at the analytics and see that Sydney has more people in it that want [to see] Luke than markets where we’re doing double stadiums, I was like, ‘We’ve got to pay attention to this,’” he says.
Kappy positioned the international tour to Combs as a mission much bigger than just expanding his own audience.
“I sat him down and said, ‘Look, man, this is an investment in your career, this is an investment in country music, this is an investment in taking the genre to the next level,’” Kappy says. “’You’re not going to make as much money as you do in [the United States], but you’re going to put the entire genre on your back, and you’re going to take it to the people and you’re going to show promoters, DSPs, record labels, publishers [and] venue buyers that country music is not only alive and well, but as strong or stronger than any other format that can tour over there.’ And he did it.”
Though he says he didn’t feel like an ambassador for country music, “I knew that’s what we were trying to do,” Combs says. “That was the ultimate goal. I’m going to give the credit to Kappy for that. That was his vision from day one. He was adamant that this was bigger than United States and Canada. No [country act] has ever been fully in. But you not only get to grow the genre, you get to extend the lifetime of your career.”
Combs first toured internationally in 2018, starting in clubs. Though he had been to many cities on the 2023 international leg before, there were certain territories, such as three dates in Scandinavia, where he had “never set foot in and he sold out arenas in all three,” Kappy says.
Tickets went on sale in August 2022 and in many markets, smaller venues were upgraded to arenas when it was clear the demand was there. In a few markets, like Paris, where Combs played the 950-seat La Cigale, or in Brussels at the 740-seat Ancienne Belgique, restrictions on moving shows kept him from being able to relocate despite the potential to sell more tickets.
Combs says playing a handful of smaller venues provided some adjustments for him and for his crew now that he’s a stadium act. “It was a huge challenge to my team to adapt to that size venue,” after playing stadiums and arenas. “We’re lugging 45 guys into a venue that has dressing rooms for 10.” Ultimately, though, he says the Paris show provided some of the best memories of the tour. “We started by playing the bar scene and didn’t realize how much we miss doing that,” he says. “It was cool to get to do that again.”
Kappy says the outside-U.S. dates broke even, and next time Combs tours internationally, he will likely be in stadiums. “We could have already done stadiums in Australia, but we couldn’t get them because the Women’s World Cup was at the same time,” Kappy says.
For the CMA’s Olykan, Combs’ tour was the perfect outing to join.
“I knew I had to leverage Luke Combs’ shows because he’s been building an international audience,” Olykan says. “He was the only one doing a world tour like this and had already done some international touring, so he was the poster child for me to attach myself to.”
Olykan’s purpose was two-pronged: to educate the international market on country music and, upon her return, to educate the U.S. country industry on her findings on potential global markets.
Coordinating with the local Sony office in different territories, Olykan held CMA-funded receptions in eight markets, including Auckland, Oslo, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Hamburg and London. The guest list included local promoters and media, as well as festival, label, streaming and radio executives. “I just knew if I could get those people to the show and around country music in the market, I knew they would [discover] it’s a young audience,” she says. “I was trying to have a converting moment for the industry in the local markets. We’ve engaged an industry around there [who] can lean in now when they hear about country music because they know the potential.”
From her time with Combs, Olykan especially sees growth potential in the Nordic countries. “If artists continue to go to the Nordics, they’re going to build good arena business there and eventually there will be a country music festival that will be a tentpole kind of moment for them,” she says. Based on her findings, the Nordics could leapfrog Germany as the next big country market, joining already established markets like the U.K. and Australia.
In additional to the cocktail parties, the CMA conducted surveys with Combs’ audiences. Though that information is still being tabulated, among the questions asked were how attendees discovered Combs, their listening habits in terms of radio and streaming and their ages. “That data will inform us and we’ll use it to talk to the industry here,” Olykan says, adding that the information will be shared with CMA’s members.
The activities expand on connections the CMA already has established based on existing task forces Olykan set up in the U.K., Canada, the Nordics, Australia and Germany. She meets with the task forces, which include industry executives, every two months.
The CMA also aligns with the Country 2 Country festival (C2C), which takes place every March in London, Glasgow, Belfast, Rotterdam and Berlin. CMA programs the opening slot on the shows with a lineup of new country artists. Based on Olykan’s research, this year, in addition to providing talent for C2C, the CMA will bring a number of developing artists for shows in Stockholm and Oslo.
Last week, Billboard revealed its year-end Boxscore charts, ranking the top tours, venues, and promoters of 2023. That coverage included analysis of the new wave of genre diverse artists crashing stadium stages, and in turn, our charts. Here, we are breaking down the year’s biggest tours, genre by genre. Today, we continue with rap. Hip-hop […]
WME‘s music leadership team outlined a new organizational structure for the company’s contemporary music department today in a company-wide memo, detailing strategic changes for the Endeavor-owned agency built around A&R, bookings and crossover opportunities.
In a memo to WME’s contemporary music department, global head of contemporary music Lucy Dickins and global co-head of contemporary music Kirk Sommer further detailed their plans, introduced over the summer months, to build upon the 45,000 concerts their team booked in 2023.
For A&R, which covers new artists signings and artist development, “new artist discovery will be coordinated across all genres and regions,” the memo explains. “Given the globalization of our business and the speed at which new artists break today, we believe this is a critical piece to identifying new talent. Kevin Shivers will be leading these efforts on behalf of the team, working with regional and genre leads.”
For booking, Dickens and Sommer explained, WME will continue to build upon its “multiple regional servicing groups, including an Asia-Pacific presence, Latin-American team, and a robust European operation,” the memo reads. Ron Opaleski will lead global bookings and international touring strategy across North America, while Tony Goldring will lead similar efforts for the company’s international clients. Josh Kurfirst will lead efforts on behalf of festivals, Clint Mitchell will lead non-traditional touring and Ryan Jones will cover the company’s private and corporate events.
Dickens and Sommer wrote also detailed changes at the company’s crossover department, which the two leaders said “is our #1 differentiator.”
“Given its importance,” the memo explained, “WME partner Keith Sarkisian will be stepping in to oversee the coordination of non-touring services for the agency’s roster, working with divisions from across WME and Endeavor.” That includes working with Dvora Englefield, WME partner/head of new music strategy, “who will continue to identify new business opportunities and strategic partnerships on behalf our artists.”
Citing “the growth across each of our offices,” Dickens and Sommer also announced the appointment of the company’s first-ever regional office leads, managed by Brian Aherns who oversees operations for the music team. The leads for WME’s international officers are Kevin Shivers (Beverly Hills), Michael Coughlin (Nashville), Stephanie LaFera (New York), Josh Javor (London) and Brett Murrihy (Sydney).
“These new roles and areas of responsibility reflect the evolution of our business today — we are a truly global operation, we have unparalleled scale, and we have more opportunities to provide our artists than ever before,” the memo continued. “With this new structure highlighting key areas of responsibility and the leadership behind it, we will now be even better equipped to provide best-in-class services to our music clients and partners.”
The memo also announced the promotion of seven agents — Kyle Bandler, Mark Claassen, Andrew Colvin, Beth Hamilton, Sloane Logue, Austin Mullins and Travis Wolfe — to partner at WME, along with the promotion of 16 employees to agent: Sam Dolen, Janelle Flint, Jacob Fox, Josh Green, Lindsey Hastings, Carly Huffman, Dan Kuklinski, Sean McHugh, Meera Patel, Adam Sherif, John Showfety, Jeremy Upton, Carlile Willett, Laura Williams, Cecilia Yao and Ben Yekuel.
Last week, Billboard revealed its year-end Boxscore charts, ranking the top tours, venues, and promoters of 2023. That coverage included analysis of the new wave of genre diverse artists crashing stadium stages, and in turn, our charts. Here, we are breaking down the year’s biggest tours, genre by genre. Today, we continue with comedy. Comedy […]
As the son of veteran agent Dennis Arfa, whose clients include Billy Joel, Metallica, Def Leppard and Rod Stewart, Jarred Arfa felt the pull of the entertainment business early on but wanted to make his own mark. And though he joined the family business, Artist Group International (AGI) — after a stint at Robert F.X. Sillerman’s licensing and rights company, CKX — he didn’t quite follow in his father’s footsteps, choosing to focus on agency management and business strategy instead of the day-to-day work of an agent.
In June, those responsibilities doubled when Jarred, 39, was promoted to executive vp/head of global music at Independent Artist Group (IAG), the talent firm formed when billionaire Ron Burkle’s The Yucaipa Companies merged AGI and the Agency for the Performing Arts, more commonly known as APA. (Yucaipa purchased AGI in 2012 and had been financing APA since 2020.)
The combined agencies now represent approximately 400 acts — a big jump from the 270 or so on AGI’s premerger roster — now that APA’s artists — among them, 50 Cent, Mary J. Blige, Lauryn Hill, Ne-Yo, Robert Glasper, Kamasi Washington, Cypress Hill and D’Angelo — have been folded into the mix.
That said, Jarred points out that “my role isn’t just signing clients, it’s signing agents” and growing the business as a whole. He also oversees the music division’s day-to-day operations and continues to work with his father, who is now IAG’s music division chairman. (Both manage Joel.)
Jarred, who lives with his wife and son in Manhattan, spoke to Billboard about the changes he has made at the agency. He also sized up his main competition and weighed in on WME and CAA agents’ dissatisfaction with their treatment after their companies’ initial public offering (IPO) and sale, respectively.
How did the IAG deal come together?
[Yucaipa co-founder and managing partner] Ron Burkle made an investment in APA during the pandemic. Frankly, we were not interested in them at first. The way their music department was run was not the way we ran ours, but I also saw they had some nice pieces of business. We met with Jim Osborne, who’s now [IAG] CEO, and we were really impressed by what he did with 50 Cent and Mary J. Blige — reinvigorating their brands through film and TV and how that enhanced their touring. So we started very organically. We decided not to commingle our music departments, but we had some artists interested in film and TV and started working with projects for Jane’s Addiction and Ghost. Eventually, we became agreeable to doing something bigger with APA if they handed the reins over to us in music. We merged, and Jim and Ron bet on me as the guy to help clean up their current music business in terms of who to keep and who not to keep.
How did Yucaipa’s culture affect IAG?
Their mantra has always been to let entrepreneurs be entrepreneurs and stay hands-off in the running of the business. We have one person from Yucaipa who works with us on a day-to-day basis, and then we go direct to Ron for bigger-picture things. When we sold the business to Yucaipa in 2011, I was still in my 20s, and I never felt he judged me by age. It was simply, “Are you smart? Can you get the job done?” If you deliver for him, you continue to rack up credibility. If I email him on something work-related, I’ll usually get a response quickly. It’s incredible, honestly, to have access to someone at that level.
How many clients does the company currently oversee?
In terms of touring, we have over 400 clients. That said, there were another 400 that were cut from the roster. We scrapped APA’s territorial system — which revolved around adult contemporary [acts] — and parted with some of the people in that model that didn’t work with our culture. We shifted some of the workforce and resources to where they were needed, which was their thriving urban department.
AGI was a music-first booking agency. How has merging with an agency involved in branding, film and TV benefited your roster?
Initially, [our music focus] served us well. We got a lot of clients who were promised the world by the major agencies, and when nothing was delivered for them, they’d come to us and say, “At least we know you’ll handle our touring well.” At the same time, it made it difficult to attract younger clients who were looking for [film/TV opportunities] and hoping for a branding deal. We need those other assets now to get us in the room for touring, which the APA partnership unlocks for us. And then we show them how much of a difference we can make on the touring side.
You have said that one of your most important responsibilities at AGI is to “stay neutral.” What does that mean?
It means I’m totally neutral when it comes to how we use our resources. A lot of times when we do sign an artist and I’m involved in the signing, I’m the one deciding which agent makes the most sense for the project because I’m the most versed in our agents’ skill sets and which one’s personality type suits the artist.
Billy Joel’s Madison Square Garden residency was a huge success. How will its completion affect business?
Nothing in our strategy changes. Obviously, you can never replace a once-in-a-lifetime-caliber artist on the level of Billy Joel, but as he recently said, he plans to continue to work after his residency at MSG is complete. We also have many other arena and stadium headliners.
How does IAG stack up against a competitor like Wasserman Music?
They’ve inherited a very strong music business. I think the problem they have — and they can dismiss it all they want, but it’s the same problem we had at AGI — is that they’re attached to a sports business. They don’t have the traditional film and TV core that is so important to so many of our artists. That’s an impediment.
Both WME and CAA have come under fire for how employees were treated during WME’s second IPO and CAA’s sale to Artemis. Agents at both firms were extremely disappointed with the amount and value of the shares they received. What’s your take?
First, I want to acknowledge that CAA’s $7 billion valuation is amazing for the agency business. As far as taking care of their people, when it comes to bonuses, I’ve always believed in the split model because there’s no arguments at the end of the day. The agent knows, based on a set formula, what they’re going to earn. There’s no gray area to be worked out, and that leads to a lot less headaches come those year-end conversations.
You’ve been public about your support of Ticketmaster. What is the government doing wrong in its constant probing of the ticketing space?
They should be focusing on the secondary market. That’s where the real problem lies. But they get lobbied hard by companies like StubHub. As agents, the best we can do is get as much of the high-end revenue for our artists that otherwise would go to the secondary market while keeping enough tickets available at affordable prices. Ticketmaster tools like Dynamic and Platinum are very helpful.
Do you think programs like Verified Fan are here to stay?
As much as I like Ticketmaster programs, this is the one that I don’t think works. Look at the backlash from Taylor Swift and Bruce Springsteen fans. Ticketmaster is making people take an extra step, and in exchange, the fans believe they’ll get a ticket at a fair price — neither of which is necessarily true. Verified Fan creates this false hope for the fan, and while the intention is noble, it ends up creating a lot more frustration than reward.
How often do you communicate with your father on agency business?
We speak a couple of times a day about what’s going on in his artist world and what his needs are. I would say we spend at least one phone call a day talking about Billy Joel and strategy. It is always a lot of fun.
When you two get together for family events, do you talk business?
It’s a blend. We could be talking about my son for one minute, then it goes back to the business. Then we talk about sports, and it’s back to business again.
The National Independent Talent Organization (NITO) has hired its first MD: Nathaniel Marro from New York’s Entourage Talent Associates. Having worked closely with Entourage founder Wayne Forte for over a decade, during which he worked on the management team for Tedeschi Trucks Band, Marro is now tasked with expanding NITO membership and advocating for policy […]
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Nicki Minaj is heading out on world tour in support of her new album, Pink Friday 2. The rap queen will embark on a global jaunt launching at the Rolling Loud festival in Oakland, Calif., on March 1, 2024.
Presale tickets for the Pink Friday 2 World Tour go on sale on Tuesday (Dec. 12). Citi cardmembers will get presale access to tickets starting on Tuesday at 9 a.m. local time until Thursday, Dec. 14 at 9 a.m. local time, per Live Nation.
General onsale starts on Friday, Dec. 15, at 9 a.m. local time.
VIP packages and experiences will be available including premium tickets and access to the Gag City Headquarters — Minaj’s VIP lounge featuring special pop-up activations, exclusive merch and more.
Citi cardmembers get access to presale through the Citi Entertainment program. To purchase presale tickets on Citientertainment.com, navigate to the calendar and click the desired show date. A six-digit code will be required to purchase presale tickets.
The Pink Friday 2 World Tour will cover 30 U.S. cities, including Las Vegas, New Orleans, Denver, Philadelphia, Boston, Toronto, two shows in New York (Barclays and Madison Square Garden) and J. Cole’s Dreamville Festival in Raleigh, N.C., on April 7.
After the U.S., the tour will head overseas to the U.K., France, Germany and The Netherlands. Presale tickets for the U.K. and Europe are on sale now, including tickets for shows in Paris, London and Amsterdam. General onsale will be available starting Dec. 15. Tickets are priced at approximately €76.20 but prices may vary depending on the city.
Fans can also check ticket sites such as StubHub, Vivid Seats, Seat Geek and Viagogo for tour tickets as they become available. The cheapest tickets that we’ve seen start at $72.50 at Ticketmaster (presale) and $80-$150 at StubHub and Vivid Seats.
Minaj is also scheduled to perform at the 2023 iHeartRadio Jingle Ball in Atlanta on Dec. 14. Get tickets here.
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Def Leppard won’t be “Bringin’ on the Heartbreak” this summer. Instead, they’ve announced another tour with the legendary Journey. The two bands will be putting on a joint tour starting July 6 that will travel across North America — and you won’t want to miss out on scoring cheap tickets.
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The “Love Bites” band may have just wrapped up their joint tour with Motley Crue, but they’re ready to hit the road again with a 23-city trek that’ll have ’80s rock fans excited to sing top hits by them and Journey as well as songs from their 12th studio album, Diamond Star Halos. The tour will begin in St. Louis, Mo., and hit cities including Orlando, Atlanta, Chicago, Toronto, Boston, Houston, Phoenix, Los Angeles and more before wrapping in Denver on Sept. 8.
Def Leppard announced the joint tour on Instagram on Thursday (Dec. 7) with a video montage revealing official openers that include Steve Miller Band, Heart and Cheap Trick, which will vary by city.
“JUST ANNOUNCED!!! Def Leppard and @journeyofficial are teaming up to rock 2024 with @stevemillerband, @heartofficial, and @cheaptrick!” the captions read.
The official fan presale happens on Tuesday (Dec. 12), but Citi cardholders have the opportunity to participate in a member-exclusive presale beginning Dec. 13 at 10 a.m. local time. General tickets will go on sale on Friday (Dec. 15) at 10 a.m. local time through Ticketmaster. Prices for tickets will range from $49 to $549.
If you miss the presale and general onsale, you may be able to score ticket through resale retailers including Vivid Seats, StubHub and Seat Geek. Plus, you can score $10 off a purchase of $250+ on Seat Geek when you use the code BILLBOARD10 (valid on first purchases only).