Live Music
2022 Holiday Gift Guide: Essentials for Music and Pop Culture Fans
Deals! Sales! Limited-time offers! Big, flashy advertisements everywhere you go! It really is the most magical time of the year. To help you wade your way through retail’s busiest season, we’ve compiled a list of the best gifts for the music, film, and pop-culture-loving person in your life. From books to Blu-rays, tech to live experiences, these goodies will help you win the unspoken “best gift giver” award this holiday season. Better yet, pick up a few of these for yourself – you deserve it. ‘Tis the season to click through gift guides and inspire your own wishlist, eh? Then, truly treat yourself by checking out the Consequence shop to score deals on wearables, CBD products, and more. And if you’re looking for vinyl-specific ideas, head over to our vinyl gift guide for even more inspirat...
Here’s What’s Happening at Brooklyn Mirage Before the 2022 Season Ends
It’s been a momentous summer for Brooklyn Mirage. The venue kicked the season off with a striking, unexpected redesign. It built one of the world’s largest outdoor video walls, a dazzling structure stretching 200 feet in length and soaring 30 feet high, topped by a modular space-frame stage roof. Besides the unrivaled visual experience, Brooklyn Mirage offered attendees top-notch programming. Alesso, Disclosure, David Guetta, Kaskade, Marshmello and Zedd are just a few fan-favorite artists to have headlined the venue this year. Brooklyn Mirage also hosted incredible takeovers by the likes of Anjunadeep, Tale Of Us’ Afterlife, Lee Burridge’s All Day I Dream and Zeds Dead’s Deadbeats. And after acquiring Electric Zoo, the venue now buzzes beyond its East Williamsburg dancefloor. The Brooklyn...
The Ledger: Concert Companies Are Maintaining a Rosy Outlook for the Rest of 2022
The Ledger is a weekly newsletter about the economics of the music business sent to Billboard Pro subscribers. An abbreviated version of the newsletter is published online. Strong demand for live music is not a surprise given fans’ time away from concerts in 2020 and 2021. But it’s not straightforward, either. Fans are dealing with inflation and high gas and airfare costs. Companies face staffing shortages and higher costs. Artists are flooding markets’ venues seeking to recapture lost business. Still, judging from some companies’ statements around their latest quarterly results, indications point to an exceptional second half of the year. Live Nation’s second quarter earnings showed a company is primed for a record year. Live Nation sold more than 100 million tickets to its concerts this ...
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Promotes Love, Forgiveness and ‘Uncanceling the Canceled’ at 2022 Billboard Music Awards
Love and forgiveness. Those are the two themes that Sean “Diddy” Combs is embracing for his first-time stint as host and executive producer of the 2022 Billboard Music Awards. As the countdown to the May 15 telecast begins, the impresario has already started raising the curtain a bit about what’s been happening behind the scenes. Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news When it was announced earlier this week that Travis Scott would be joining a performer lineup that includes Morgan Wallen, Silk Sonic, Ed Sheeran and Megan Thee Stallion, Combs noted on Instagram, “I made a request; I made a demand. I said my brother Travis Scott has to perform … And NBC said yes.” This will be Scott’s first awards show performance since a crowd crush during his show at ...
John Legend Spreads the ‘Love’ at Opening Night of Las Vegas Residency
Fans streaming inside the doors of Planet Hollywood’s Zappos Theater on Friday night (April 22) were greeted by signs stationed outside that read: “Please be advised that we encourage guests to stand up during the performance.” But once the curtains rose on the opening night of John Legend’s first residency, “Love in Las Vegas,” that extra coaching really wasn’t needed. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news For the next two hours, Legend held the full house in his hands as they danced, screamed (“All right, Big John!”) and aah-ed their way through a generous set encompassing the multiple Grammy winner’s seven-album catalog of hits and fan faves. Complementing all of this: colorful sets as well as a few other surprises. Here are five memorable...
This New Ticketing Platform Offers Music Fans A Once-In-A-Lifetime Experience
If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, SPIN may receive an affiliate commission. Most music fans only dream about going backstage after a concert and meeting their favorite artist. Most sports fans only fantasize about sitting in the front row or visiting the locker room after a game. Why? Because that kind of access is reserved for VIPs. But what if there was a way fans could gain that exclusive access? Well, that’s the question driving a new startup called Granted. Founded in 2020 with a $3 million angel investment, Granted is a female-owned and operated company hell-bent on disrupting the ticketing industry. With its user-friendly online platform, Granted is a one-stop shop for music and sports fans who want to take their night out to...
Amazon’s Rival Clubhouse App Will Let You DJ Your Own Radio Show
After a major Axios report from earlier this summer detailing Amazon’s interest in live audio, more information has been revealed about their rumored app, Project Mic. According to The Verge, the new app will function similarly to Clubhouse. Users will be able to establish their profile and broadcast information about a subject of their choice or simply host a live DJ radio show. Other users will be able to find individual shows through a search bar divided into sections like pop culture, music, sports, and more. The user-generated radio shows will then be accessible through various other Amazon-owned applications, such as Twitch, Audible, Amazon Music, and Alexa-compatible devices. Ryoji Hayasaka Recommended Articles The important note here is that Amazon i...
Hollywood Bowl to Prioritize Fully Vaccinated Attendees Under New 67% Capacity Cap
Nearly 40% of adults in the United States have now been fully vaccinated, paving the way to a promising future of live events in 2021. And, with the CDC’s recent announcement that these individuals no longer need to wear masks outdoors, venues are adjusting their COVID-19 safety measures to match. Leading the way is the Hollywood Bowl after releasing an updated Safety Information breakdown on May 20th. According to these new protocols, fully vaccinated event attendees will be given priority access to seating at the venue, which will operate at 67% of its usual capacity. To be considered “fully vaccinated,” patrons must be two weeks past their final dose of the vaccine and be able to present either physical or digital documentation, the Bowl’s website stat...
Red Rocks Amphitheatre Will Resume Concerts at Full Capacity in June
Following a tumultuous year that saw the venue postpone or cancel an unprecedented amount of concerts, Colorado’s fabled Red Rocks Amphitheatre will soon reopen at full capacity. Organizers took to social media to announce that Red Rocks will resume operations at 100% capacity—or 9,545 patrons—this summer starting June 21st. Until then, the seating capacity limit is 6,300 fans as of today. Notable electronic music shows scheduled in the month after the capacity expansion include a two-night headlining run by STS9 on July 23rd and 24th, twin performances by RÜFÜS DU SOL on August 11th and 12th, and an August 20th concert featuring Big Wild and Bob Moses, among others. The news arrives after Governor Jared Polis gave Colorado venues the green-light to host large events without the...
Julien Baker Brings Us Close to Little Oblivions at Nashville’s Analog: Review
Got Enough Gas: There’s music that makes you think and music that makes you want to move, and there’s Julien Baker. The songwriter has an uncanny talent for considering the underlying motivations for her own feelings and actions, and the result is often visceral music that hypnotizes the attention of the listener and prompts self-reflection, sometimes feeling deeply difficult and deeply healing at once — which is maybe part of the point. Baker released Little Oblivions last month and received instant praise for its bold and self-conscious digs into complex questions of addiction, survival, mental illness, and second chances. The album marked an evolution for Baker’s music into a fuller band sound, after she probed the depths of acoustic alt-folk in her first two albums and united her talen...
deadmau5 Announces “Day Of The Deadmau5 Weekend” Halloween Shows
After keeping our spirits alive this past Halloween with a special drive-in concert edition of his annual “Day of the deadmau5” show, deadmau5 has officially announced that the fright-fest will be returning live and in-person in 2021. This year, the haunting will go down in Miami from October 28th to 31st. As of this publication, no official venue or supporting acts have been announced. 2019’s “Day of the deadmau5” was hosted at the Red Rocks Amphitheatre and featured support from the late i_o, Lights, Getter, and Callie Reiff. The sets he throws down on Halloween are always special and add to the fan-favorite “day of the deadmau5” mix series. deadmau5 is currently gearing up for the debut of his highly-anticipated c...
Grammys 2021: Music’s Biggest Night Finally Makes Music the Focus
The 2021 Grammy Awards in Los Angeles and the pop culture landscape both look vastly different from years past. The show, which has often overlooked contributions from women and people of color, is working on course correction, and this year’s program certainly reflected these efforts. While band-aids on gaping wounds aren’t always enough, the choice to focus on the reason for gathering — the music — was a wise one and paid off due in part to the “in the round” stage setups that recalled Jools Holland’s BBC format. Executive producer Ben Winston pulled off one of the cleanest, smoothest awards shows of this era, working to create some of the moments that make shows like this memorable. As always, though, the Grammys are a frustrating paradox. They correctly spotlighted some of the best art...
