Touring
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UTA has added two new hires to its Nashville office, with Brian Hill joining as music agent and Jaime Roberts joining as tour marketing director.
Hill brings more than three decades of talent agency experience, including stints at Monterey Peninsula Artists/Paradigm and Creative Arts Agency (CAA). Hill has been named Pollstar‘s Third Coast Agent of the Year twice and has worked with artists including Eli Young Band, Aaron Lewis, Frankie Ballard and Home Free.
New York native Roberts launched her career in live entertainment by promoting live family entertainment experiences with Feld Entertainment, followed by more than a decade leading in marketing and promotions at Live Nation and The Bowery Presents for events in the New York and New Jersey region. Most recently, Roberts spent seven years in Austin, Texas, where she developed and executed multi-channel marketing campaigns for major touring artists with Messina Touring Group. During her time there, she led successful tour marketing efforts for artists including Shawn Mendes, Tim McGraw/Faith Hill, Little Big Town and Kelly Clarkson.
Over the past year, UTA Nashville has added Tyler Hubbard, Bobby Bones, Chris Janson, Parmalee, Dalton Dover and more to its roster and helped develop music newcomers including Megan Moroney, Alana Springsteen, Brittney Spencer and Chase Matthew.
“We are excited to have Brian and Jaime join us at UTA as we continue to expand and elevate the music department,” said UTA co-head of global music Scott Clayton in a statement. “Their decades of experience and stellar track record of going above and beyond for their clients make them perfect additions to our world-class team in Nashville.”
Live Nation’s 2022 was record-breaking across basically all key metrics — revenue, concert attendance, gross transaction value and sponsorships were all at all-time highs — and the company expects 2023 to top that.
As the company reported Thursday (Feb) with its fourth quarter earnings, total revenue reached a record $16.7 billion in 2022 — up 44% from the pre-pandemic era of 2019. That growth was spread across a number of factors: more fans, more concerts, more spending per fan, higher average ticket prices and a greater number of large sponsors.
Adjusted operating income improved 49% to $1.4 billion over the year, and operating free cash flow rose nearly four-fold to $1.8 billion.
Concert revenue in 2022 was $13.49 billion, up 43.1% from 2019 and 185.8% more than 2021. Concert attendance reached 121 million fans in 2022, up 24% from 2019 and a 246% increase from 2021, a year Live Nation began to recover from the pandemic but was not yet at full strength. The concerts division put on 43,600 events in 2022, up 153.2% from 2021 and up 8.4% from 2019. Attendance for Venue Nation, the venues operated by Live Nation, reached almost 50 million.
Ticketing revenues of $2.24 billion was up 44.9% from 2019 and up 97.4% from 2021. Fee-bearing ticket volume rose 28% from 2019 to 280 million. Fee-bearing gross transaction value grew to $28 billion, up more than 50% from 2019.
The average ticket costs were higher in 2022, too. With more tickets priced dynamically to true market value, Live Nation estimates $700 million was shifted to artists (and, presumably, away from the secondary market). That said, the average entry price for tickets remained below $35 in the U.S.
Even though consumers felt the pinch of high inflation throughout 2022, music fans didn’t shy away from spending money at Live Nation concerts. Ancillary per-fan spending rose at least 20% across all venue types from 2019 levels.
Sponsorship revenue reached $968 million, up 64% from 2019 and 135% greater than 2021. Live Nation had 120 large sponsors globally, up 32% from 2019. Last year, the company added PayPal, GoPuff, Hulu and Snap as sponsors. They and other new, large sponsors accounted for 80% of sponsorship’s revenue growth in 2022.
Live Nation points to a number of leading indicators that suggest 2023 will be even stronger than 2022. As of mid-February, event-related deferred revenue — tickets sales for concerts that have not yet occurred — was up $400 million to $2.7 billion. Also through mid-February, ticket sales are up 20% and fee-bearing gross transaction value of tickets sold is up 33%.
Veteran talent buyer Jon Halperin has joined the expanding team at From The Roots as talent buyer for its boutique festival site and amphitheater, Poconos Park in Pennsylvania.
From The Roots is a new music real estate development, venue management and independent promoter company founded by veteran entertainment entrepreneur, executive and marketer John M. Oakes.
In early 2022, From the Roots acquired more than 200 acres of land, including the nearly $40 million- development formerly known as Mt. Laurel Performing Arts Center and the Tom Ridge Pavilion.
“From The Roots recognized the venue’s immediate potential, took action, renovated, upgraded and reopened as Poconos Park,” according to a press release.
Halperin has been buying music talent for nearly 25 years for venues like the Chain Reaction in Anaheim, Calif. (where he booked the Mars Volta’s first show) as well as The Glass House in Pomona, Calif.
“It’s great to be working with Jon again,” says Oakes. “Jon has decades of history and knowledge from booking a wide range of talent across genres. We are excited to work with him to curate headliners and continue to foster developing artists on shows as he has throughout his career.”
Halperin will work remotely from Southern California and continues to book the Isle of Light festival in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, as well as the Gridlife and Celebrez en Rose festival brand. Halperin also worked for the Coachella Music and Arts Festival, First City Festival in Monterey Calif., All Tomorrow’s Parties Warped Tour and Hootenanny.
“This opportunity allows me to continue to expand my talent buying reach,” says Halperin, “While at the same time it is very exciting to be a part of a growing a larger capacity independent venue and company!”
Though the calendar year has flipped and Billboard’s January Boxscore report celebrates the beginning of a new year in touring, the top of the charts carry over what became a constant toward the end of 2022. According to figures reported to Billboard Boxscore, Elton John’s Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour earned $40.9 million during the month, securing his seventh at No. 1 on the Top Tours chart overall, and third in the last four months.
Beyond extending his record for time atop the ranking, notably, January’s Oceania leg of John’s sprawling farewell tour pushed the entire run’s gross to $817.9 million – making it the highest grossing tour of all time. It surpasses Ed Sheeran’s The Divide Tour ($776.4 million), which set the previous high mark in 2019, and U2’s The 360 Tour ($736.4 million), which had held the title since 2011.
Simultaneously, John leads the Top Boxscores chart with $11.3 million at Sydney’s Allianz Stadium on Jan. 17-18. Since the charts launched in February 2019, it’s the ninth time an artist has ruled both rankings, and the second for John, who first did so in January 2020. BTS is the only other act to double-up twice.
John’s $40-million January breaks down to two stadiums shows apiece in Newcastle (Jan. 9, 11), Melbourne (Jan. 14-15) and Sydney (Jan. 18-19), plus single shows in Brisbane (Jan. 22) and Christchurch (Jan. 25).
Not only does John crown the Boxscores ranking, he follows himself at Nos. 2 (Melbourne), 4 (Newcastle), 6 (Brisbane), and 11 (Christchurch). Blanketing the chart with four top 10 appearances, he set himself apart from the pack in stadiums during Australia and New Zealand’s summer, while the Northern winter kept last year’s holdovers dormant and 2023’s from beginning later into the spring.
The strategy does extend to the Red Hot Chili Peppers at No. 2 on Top Tours and at Nos. 5, 9 and 12 on Top Boxscores. The funk-pop-rock band earned $15.1 million from the first three of its Oceania shows, with five more to chart in February. This follows the $59.6 million in Europe and $117.4 million in North America last year, playing stadiums in both continents during the warmth of June through September.
With far less history in Oceania than on the Western hemisphere, the Chili Peppers enlisted Post Malone to join the January and February shows. The bulked-up billing helped transform the band from an arena act to a stadium act in the region, having last reported shows in Oceania on 2007’s Stadium Arcadium Tour. Audience in Auckland flipped from 22,000 in ’07 to 48,000 in 2023, while Brisbane’s crowd grew from 22,000 to 40,000.
Playing Brisbane’s Suncorp Stadium just a week after John, the two combined for $13.9 million and 91,000 tickets sold, enough to be the top grossing venue of the month worldwide.
On the Top Venues, 15,001+ capacity chart, Suncorp is followed by Sydney’s Allianz Stadium and Melbourne’s AAMI Park at Nos. 2-3, respectively, plus Manchester’s McDonald Jones Stadium at No. 6, forming a powerful Oceania block over western mainstays like the Kia Forum in Inglewood, Calif. (No. 4), the O2 Arena in London (No. 5) and Madison Square Garden in New York (No. 8).
Continuing the 2022 carryover at the head of Top Tours, Harry Styles is No. 3, after finishing at No. 4 on last year’s annual recap. He earned $12.4 million from 62,000 tickets sold, all from four arena dates. On Jan. 26-27 and 29, Styles played the final three dates of his 15-show mini-residency at the Kia Forum in Inglewood, Calif. Those dates grossed $9.6 million and pushed the entire Inglewood run to a gross of $47.8 million, making it the fifth-highest grossing headline engagement in Boxscore history.
Additionally, Styles played two shows at Acrisure Arena in Palm Desert, Calif. One of those shows, played on Jan. 31, counts toward his monthly total, and the other, played on Feb. 1, will count toward his February earnings.
While January typically is a lull between the final dates of major tours in November and December and the opening nights for the year’s biggest attractions in February and March, January 2023 proved that there are ways to kick off the year in style, pun intended. From John and the Chili Peppers going to Australia, to The 1975 and Future conducting brief, monthlong runs before calendars get too packed, January can be a sneaky time for sleeper ticket sales.
Further flagged by Omicron-era woes, the January 2021 Top Tours chart featured six tours above $5 million, 18 above $1 million, and cut off the 30-position ranking at $548,000. One year later, those numbers improve to eight, 28, and $975,000.
SYDNEY, Australia — Brendon Bainbridge is leaving TEG after 17 years, the past six of those leading the live entertainment, ticketing, digital and data giant’s activities in Asia.
Bainbridge has been “an asset to TEG from day one and I want to personally thank him for his friendship, commitment, loyalty and immense efforts in successfully launching TEG in Asia,” comments TEG CEO Geoff Jones in a statement announcing the move.
During his six-year stint as managing director, Asia, “Brendon has grown the business in the region, leading through the pandemic, the entertainment and ticketing industry’s most challenging period in recent times, positioning TEG Asia to now capitalize on a wealth of opportunity in the region,” adds Jones.
Before making the move to Singapore, Bainbridge served for 11 years as managing director of Ticketek New Zealand.
Bainbridge is leaving to go live in Colorado, according to the company, and TEG is working on opportunities for him to continue working with the company after his relocation.
His successor at TEG is Timothy Ho, who is named as managing director, Asia, and has worked closely with Bainbridge for the last year, creating what should be “seamless transition for our business in the region,” enthuses Jones.
The incoming chief has 15 years’ experience in live entertainment and ticketing prior to joining to TEG, and was a “clear choice to step into the role,” says Sydney-based Jones.
The region, notes Ho, “is at the forefront of every major discussion now for live entertainment and ticketing – it’s a great time to be stepping into this leadership role and fulfilling TEG’s long-term vision and commitment to Asia.”
Currently, the TEG empire includes TEG Live, TEG Sport, TEG Experiences, TEG Dainty, SXSW Sydney, TEG MJR, TEG Van Egmond, Laneway Festival, FAN+, Handsome Tours, Qudos Bank Arena and ticketing giant Ticketek, a multiple winner at the 2022 Ticketing Business Forum international awards in Manchester, England.
In other news, TEG’s owners are reportedly preparing for an auction process.
In one article published last month in the Australian Financial Review, TEG is said to be pitched to big global buyout funds as “a unique business worldwide,” one that has expanded its footprint in recent years.
Another tale which ran in The Australian, suggested a sale process for the group could kick off this April, with investment bank Jefferies tapped to facilitate.
TEG was acquired in 2019 by Silver Lake, the U.S.-based private equity company which specializes in technology investing. Financial terms weren’t revealed, but sources say TEG carried a price tag of $1 billion-plus.
A spokesman did not respond to requests for comment.
After a four-year hiatus, long-running Seattle music festival Bumbershoot will return this Labor Day weekend — with help from e-commerce giant Amazon.
As announced Tuesday (Feb. 21) by new Bumbershoot producer New Rising Sun, the festival will return for its 50th edition on Sept. 2-3, 2023, and Amazon has agreed to underwrite presale tickets for this year’s edition to keep it affordable. The e-retailer will sponsor a special early bird $50 single-day ticket and $85 two-day general admission ticket — prices that are 50% lower than when the event was last held in 2019. Amazon has also announced plans to work with arts organization Third Stone to give out 5,000 tickets to area non-profits and community organizations.
First launched in 1971, Bumbershoot faced a double whammy in recent years thanks to declining ticket sales and attendance in the 2010s followed by three years of closure due to the pandemic.
Bumbershoot was previously produced by AEG Presents, which had agreed to produce the festival with Seattle non-profit festival production company One Reel beginning in 2014 to help cover the $1 million in debt One Reel had racked up and restore the event’s financial footing. In 2019, AEG Pacific Northwest vp Rob Thomas announced the company was not renewing its agreement, hinting at financial differences with One Reel. That same year, a barricade collapse at Bumbershoot injured four attendees.
One Reel executives announced plans to stage the festival in 2020, only to be stymied by the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2021, host venue the Seattle Center put out a new request for proposals for the event, with the winning bid going to New Rising Sun, a collective founded by Neumos co-owner Steven Severin, who now serves as Bumbershoot’s co-president & director of music programming; Vital 5 Productions founder Greg Lundgren, who serves as curator; and McCaw Hall general manager Joe Paganelli, who serves as producer.
“We heard from our community and took action — fulfilling our promise of affordability and inclusivity,” Severin said in a statement to Billboard. “When re-imagining our festival for this return, we examined everything through an arts lens and expanded upon what art is and can be. We look forward to sharing our vision this Labor Day weekend.”
“As ticket prices steadily climb for concerts and events around the globe, we’re excited to support reduced and free ticket prices, creating opportunity for more of our community to enjoy the diversity of Seattle’s creative ecosystem, participate in Bumbershoot’s exciting education programs, and immerse themselves in the arts,” added Amazon senior vp/general counsel/secretary David Zapolsky.
Tickets go on sale Friday (Feb. 24) at 10:00 a.m. PT via bumbershoot.com. Fans are encouraged to purchase tickets in advance as they are expected to sell quickly. A performer lineup will be announced at a later date.
TWICE is hitting the road again. As announced Tuesday (Feb. 21), the K-pop girl group will embark on its highly anticipated READY TO BE world tour this spring, the group’s fifth total world tour and its largest so far.
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The tour will see the ladies of TWICE — Nayeon, Jeongyeon, Momo, Sana, Jihyo, Mina, Dahyun, Chaeyoung and Tzuyu — playing 17 shows across 14 cities, beginning April 15 with stops in South Korea, Australia and Japan. The group will then head overseas to North America, where it’ll make stops at Los Angeles’ SoFi Stadium and MetLife Stadium, concerts that will make them the first female K-pop girl group to play either venue. More North American dates are forthcoming, according to a release.
The tour news follows Billboard‘s announcement that TWICE will be honored at the 2023 Billboard Women in Music Awards with the Breakthrough Artist Award on the first of March. The honor comes after TWICE’s “Moonlight Sunrise,” a single off the group’s March-slated EP Ready to Be, became their second ever entry on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at No. 84. The track also earned TWICE a career high placement on Billboard’s Digital Song Sales chart, peaking at No. 3.
Tickets for shows in the U.S. will be available through a Ticketmaster Verified Fan sale, now open for registration. If any additional tickets remain after the Verified Fan sale concludes, a general onsale will be announced at a later date. Information for tickets to shows in Korea, Australia and Japan can be found on local event pages.
See the list of confirmed Ready to Be Tour dates below:
Saturday, April 15th – Korea / Seoul / KSPO Dome
Sunday, April 16th – Korea / Seoul / KSPO Dome
Wednesday, May 3rd – Australia / Sydney / Qudos Bank Arena
Saturday, May 6th – Australia / Melbourne / Rod Laver Arena
Saturday, May 13th – Osaka / Japan / Yanmar Stadium Nagai
Sunday, May 14th – Osaka / Japan / Yanmar Stadium Nagai
Saturday, May 20th – Tokyo / Japan / Ajinomoto Stadium
Sunday, May 21st – Tokyo / Japan / Ajinomoto Stadium
Saturday, June 10th – United States / Los Angeles / SoFi Stadium
Tuesday, June 13th – United States / Oakland / Oakland Arena
Friday, June 16th – United States / Seattle / Tacoma Dome
Wednesday, June 21st – United States / Dallas / Globe Life Field
Saturday, June 24th – United States / Houston / Toyota Center
Wednesday, June 28th – United States / Chicago / United Center
Sunday, July 2nd – Canada / Toronto / Scotiabank Arena
Thursday, July 6th – United States / New York / MetLife Stadium
Sunday, July 9th – United States / Atlanta / Truist Park
Jeff Olson has been hired as vp of booking for Crypto. com Arena, Microsoft Theater and L.A. LIVE. In his new role, Olson will focus on sourcing talent and securing deals with high-priority clients and promoters for shows for all three venues. In addition, he’ll be responsible for working with the Los Angeles Lakers, Kings, Clippers and Sparks to assist with the scheduling and maintaining the arena’s calendar as well as working with the award shows and residencies to assist with the scheduling and maintaining Microsoft Theater and L.A. LIVE venue calendars.
“We are incredibly excited to have Jeff Olson joining our team,” says Lee Zeidman, president, Crypto.com Arena, Microsoft Theater and L.A. LIVE. “He brings over 23 years of experience and knowledge of booking and event production to our venues and to the market, along with strong industry relationships. We are looking forward to having Jeff joining us here in Los Angeles and booking a variety of content for our venues in this competitive market.”
Hallie Yavitch, svp of booking and marketing for the trio of venues, said she was happy to welcome Olson back to town for this position — from 2002 to 2014 he lived in LA while working as a talent buyer and marketing director for the Arena Network.
“His impressive resume, experience and relationships will help our venues continue to grow and succeed in a competitive landscape,” Yavitch said.
The Michigan State alum started his career in the live entertainment industry as a talent buyer for Meridian Entertainment in Holt, Michigan in 1998 and went on to work at the ArenaNetwork before becoming the director of booking, events and marketing for the Memphis Grizzlies and FedEx Forum. In his time at the FedEx Forum, he delivered multiple record years in both the number of events, as well as fiscal performance for the venue. From November 2021 to February 2023, he became director of booking & special events for Snapdragon Stadium, the OVG360-managed facility in San Diego.
Olson will report directly to Yavitch.
Long Beach is the laboratory for a half-dozen sustainability initiatives at this weekend’s annual Cali Vibes music festival at the city’s Marina Green Park.
Headlined by Snoop Dogg, Jack Johnson, Slightly Stoopid, Damian Marley, Ben Harper, Cypress Hill and many more, the popular reggae and West Coast hip-hop festival will be ground zero for new efforts by promoter Goldenvoice to dramatically reduce waste, decrease the event’s carbon footprint and use materials from last year’s festival to create merch and apparel for 2023 fans.
The challenge for Cali Vibes — like all other festivals — is that most festivals are not considered environmentally sustainable due to the amount of attendee travel involved, the energy consumed and the waste generated on-site, says AEG vp of Sustainability Erik Distler.
“It’s important to start with recognizing this work is difficult,” Distler says. “Executing sustainability initiatives for a large temporary event with tens of thousands of people involves engaging a broad stakeholder set” that includes artists, vendors, production companies, city officials and fans.
Distler said Goldevoice realized early on that the best way to maximize the impact of their sustainability efforts was to “embrace the complexity at the onset” of planning the 2023 event and develop a strategy centered around trackable operational improvements and attendee education.
“We’re in the business of bringing people together, evoking emotion, fueling passion and energy — it’s very human,” Distler adds. “We have the opportunity and responsibility to connect with our fans and talk about our sustainability work in a way that’s inspiring and uplifting. It’s about what’s possible if we come together.”
Sustainability has always been one of the undertones of Cali Vibes, “due to the event’s proximity to the ocean and the overall spirit of the festival,” says Nic Adler, vp of Goldenvoice Festivals. “This year, we booked Jack Johnson and his team really got us motivated to look at each corner of the festival and ask ourselves ‘what can we do differently?’”
That includes pushing Goldenvoice and its parent company AEG to offer fans refillable water stations and eliminate the sale of single-use plastic water bottles at the festival. This effort included renegotiating a water sponsorship agreement originally brokered by AEG with Origin, which will now offer canned instead of bottled water at Cali Vibes. Goldenvoice also partnered with vendor r.Cup to replace its single-use beer cups with a reusable plastic cup that is collected on-site, washed at a specialized cleaning facility and reused the following weekend.
Cali Vibes
Elli Lauren
“These cups have a life expectancy of several years,” dramatically reducing the number of single-use cups that end up in the landfill, says Michael Ilves, director of Goldenvoice Festivals, noting that the event’s waste management plan includes bins specifically designed to collect the cups.
“Another change in how we manage waste production is that bins previously labeled as trash or landfill will now be labeled as ‘waste-to-energy,’” Ilves explains. “Long Beach happens to have a waste-to-energy power plant that burns off waste, captures the gases released and powers about 35,000 homes off of that process.”
Helping fund the initiative is a first-ever $5 per ticket sustainability fee to pay for initiatives like the r.Cup program and purchase equipment to promote the use of solar energy and reduce the use of diesel generators. Goldenvoice is also working with a vendor to recycle signage, printed material and leftover merchandise from the 2022 festival to create new consumer items for 2023, including apparel, tote bags and posters.
All sustainability initiatives at the festival are being closely tracked by Santa Monica firm Three Squares Inc. — including recording every staff member’s own carbon footprint — to measure Goldenvoice’s progress and analyze opportunities to expand the company’s sustainability efforts to the 32 festival brands it operates globally, including the annual Coachella and Stagecoach festivals. Insights gleaned from the resulting report can help the company significantly improve its environmental impact, Adler explains.
“Popping up in a parking lot for an event that 20,000 people drive to is not sustainable,” Adler says. “That’s why it’s important for us to create a report that allows us to continue the work that we’re doing and be honest about our own carbon footprint. It gives us an opportunity to get together in a room and say ‘Here is last year’s number, this year let’s try to cut it in half.’”
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You are going to have a lot of chances to see P!nk on the road this year. On the same day she dropped her ninth studio album, TRUSTFALL, the “Never Gonna Not Dance Again” singer announced the dates for her 2023 fall arena tour in support of the collection, which is slated to kick off with an Oct. 12 date at the Golden 1 Center in Sacramento, Calif.
The Live Nation-produced 14-city North American tour with support from Grouplove and KidCutUp will feature stops in San Francisco, Vancouver, Denver, Kansas City, Montreal, New York, Cleveland and Miami before winding down on Nov. 18 at Amway Center in Orlando. Tickets for select dates on the TRUSTFALL Tour will be available in a Citi and Verizon presale beginning Tuesday (Feb. 21) at 10 a.m. local time until Feb. 23 at 10 p.m. local time here.
The general onsale for the tour will start on Feb. 24 at 10 a.m. local time here.
Fans have already gotten a taste of TRUSTFALL through the singles “Dance” and the touching ballad dedicated to her late father, “When I Get There.” The album also features collaborations with Chris Stapleton, The Lumineers and First Aid Kit, as well as production and songwriting from Max Martin, Shellback, Greg Kurstin, FRED and Billy Mann.
The TRUSTFALL tour will follow this summer’s previously announced Summer Carnival Stadium Tour, which will feature guests Brandi Carlile, Rock and Roll Hall of Famers Pat Benatar and Neil Giraldo, Grouplove and KidCutUp.
Check out the dates for P!nk’s fall 2023 TRUSTFALL tour and the album cover below:
Oct. 12 – Sacramento, CA @ Golden 1 Center
Oct. 14 – San Francisco, CA @ Chase Center
Oct. 17 – Tacoma, WA @ Tacoma Dome
Oct. 20 – Vancouver, BC @ Rogers Arena
Oct. 25 – Denver, CO @ Ball Arena
Oct. 27 – Kansas City, MO @ T-Mobile Center
Nov. 1 – Montreal, QC @ Bell Centre
Nov. 4 – New York, NY @ Madison Square Garden
Nov. 7 – Indianapolis, IN @ Gainbridge Fieldhouse
Nov. 8 – Cleveland, OH @ Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse
Nov. 11 – Louisville, KY @ KFC Yum! Center
Nov. 12 – Charlotte, NC @ Spectrum Center
Nov. 14 – Miami, FL @ Miami-Dade Arena
Nov. 18 – Orlando, FL @ Amway Center
Courtesy Photo