Touring
Ticketmaster Plans to Blame Scalpers for Taylor Swift Debacle at Senate Hearing
Don’t expect Live Nation’s Joe Berchtold to be quoting Taylor Swift’s “Anti-Hero” during Tuesday’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on ticketing. Unlike the pop star’s “I’m the problem it’s me” chorus-turned-meme, the company’s president and CFO plans to take aim at who he says are the real culprits behind Swift’s disastrous Nov. 15 presale: scalpers. While the Live Nation-owned Ticketmaster was villainized for weeks following the presale for Swift’s upcoming The Eras Tour that both broke single-day sales records and threw fans into a fury over service issues, according to a prepared opening statement reviewed by Billboard, Berchtold plans to lay much of the blame on scalpers who used illegal bots to attack the online sale. The statement — to be delivered Tuesday (Jan. 24) in Washington,...
Dallas’ Legendary Longhorn Ballroom to Reopen
Texas promoter Edwin Cabaniss with Kessler Presents has announced plans to restore Dallas’ Longhorn Ballroom. The notorious nightclub was once owned by Chicago mob associate Jack Ruby, who famously shot and killed John F. Kennedy assassin Lee Harvey Oswald as he left Dallas Police headquarters on Nov. 23, 1963. The Longhorn opened in the 1950s as singer Bob Wills’ Ranch House. It was later operated by recording artist and record label boss Dewey Groom through the ’60s and ’70s, hosting concerts by Nat King Cole, Patsy Cline, T- Bone Walker and many more. Cabaniss plans to incorporate the venue’s long history when it reopens this spring, in part with the original museum-style display cases built into the walls. The venue has traded hands a number of times in recent years and close...
Why Coachella Always Announces Its Lineup First — And What Happens When It’s Late
With Tuesday’s flurry of festival lineups — including Boston Calling, Bonnaroo, Sonic Temple Festival, and, finally, Coachella — the 2023 North American festival season formally kicked off, and music fans can expect more announcements to follow. This figurative ringing of the bell is typically reserved for Coachella (and Coachella alone), which usually announces its lineup the first week of January. But when Los Angeles-based concert promoter Goldenvoice didn’t deliver on time — for unexplained reasons — it left some executives wondering what to expect from potential ripple effects throughout the festival circuit. That’s due to Coachella’s contracts and stature in the business. Coachella’s artist contracts come with radius clauses that give the Southern California festiv...
Taylor Swift Confirms Eras Tour Rehearsals Are Underway & Fans Have Some Thoughts
It’s happening, Swifties. It’s really happening. Taylor Swift recently confirmed that rehearsals for her highly anticipated Eras Tour, which kicks off this March, have officially begun. “It’s me! Hi!” the 33-year-old pop star wrote on her Instagram Story Thursday (Jan. 5), referencing her No. 1 single “Anti-Hero.” “I’m taking a break from tour rehearsal to tell you…” Swift went on to promote her 12-hour flash sale of exclusive digital copies of Midnights, which included bonus “behind the song” material for four of the album’s tracks. The sale has since ended, but that’s not the part that caught Swifties’ eyes. “I knew taylor was in tour rehearsals but her TELLING US just makes it feel even more real,” tweeted one of the many Swifties who caught on to that part of the “All Too Well” singer’...
Taylor Swift Fan Files New Lawsuit Against Ticketmaster, Live Nation Over Eras Tour Presale
Less than three weeks after two dozen Taylor Swift fans sued Live Nation over Ticketmaster’s disastrous presale of tickets to her Eras Tour in November, another similar lawsuit has been filed against the concert giant in California federal court. Filed Tuesday (Dec. 20), the class-action lawsuit, brought by Swift fan Michelle Sterioff, accuses Live Nation and subsidiary Ticketmaster of violating federal antitrust and unfair competition laws and “intentionally and purposefully” misleading “millions of fans into believing” Ticketmaster would prevent bots and scalpers from participating in presales for the tour. Similar to the lawsuit filed earlier this month, Tuesday’s lawsuit alleges that Live Nation and Ticketmaster, which merged in 2010, represent a monopoly in both the primary and second...
Revered Nashville Venue Exit/In Gets New Talent Buyer Under AJ Capital Partners
AJ Capital Partners, the new owners of revered Nashville music venue Exit/In, have named a new talent buyer for the iconic entertainment hub and plan to re-open the shuttered venue as early as this Spring after it temporarily closed in late November. Though there had been local speculation and concern that AJ Capital would turn to a large promoter such as Live Nation to book the 51-year old independent venue, the new owners are utilizing an in-house team with Dan Merker serving as Exit/In’s lead talent buyer. Merker, who oversees talent buying for all AJ Capital properties, has previously worked at Outback Presents, HUKA Entertainment and Tortuga Music Festival. “We are honored to carry on the legacy of this iconic venue and raise the bar for both the fan and artist experience,” Merker sai...
Concert Venues Are Still Closing After the Pandemic — My Local Club Just Shut Down
DENVER — Tennyson’s Tap was the kind of music club where, on packed nights, the lone frazzled employee serving drinks, running sound and manning the door might ask one of the bands to help out and collect the $5 cover charge. I know because I sang in one of those bands, Smaldone Faces, and our bassist Luke and I pretty much let everyone in for free. The Tap, at 4335 W. 38th St. in Denver, specialized in whiskey and scruffy musicians of every conceivable genre — my two bands that played there did country, punk and metal covers, and we opened for screamo indie-rockers, jazzy improvisationalists and dreadlocked funk-and-reggae combos. The bar smelled like cigarettes and beer, and had a capacity of about 90, but when we drew our crowds of 20 or 30 people, it roared like Springsteen at the Roxy...
How Bad Bunny Staged His Record-Setting Stadium Tour: 36 Trucks, a Cargo Jet & 100 Tons of Equipment
Few things faze Noah Assad, Bad Bunny’s manager. But even he admits that launching a stadium tour barely three months after an arena tour was a bit daunting. “We knew it was going to be a learning experience and something none of us had done before,” Assad says now, “but we went for it and worked through it with the help of old and new partners and set new industry standards.” Bad Bunny ends the year as the top touring act of 2022, grossing $373.5 million from 1.8 million tickets across 65 shows, according to Billboard Boxscore, and that number doesn’t even include his last 20 Latin American stadium shows. This makes Bunny — born Benito Martinez Ocasio — the first act who doesn’t perform in English to ever top the year-end tally. World’s Hottest Tour broke venue revenue records in 12 of th...
K-Pop Promoter Behind BTS, BLACKPINK Tours Partners With AEG Presents
AEG Presents, a global leader in concert promotion and artist development, on Thursday (Dec. 8) announced an official strategic partnership with K-pop touring and marketing company Powerhouse. The two live music companies, which have worked together on many successful K-pop artists over the past 13 years, will collaborate on all aspects of the live K-pop business including touring, production, marketing and media across every level. “In the course of last two decades, K-pop has grown to be one of the most popular genres in the global music industry.,” says C.S. Hah, Powerhouse chief executive and president. “The K-pop market has proven its depth and width to be more matured than ever, and I hope our launch of this formal partnership with AEG Presents can help K-pop grow to reach new horizo...
Bad Bunny Makes History as Top Touring Act for 2022: The Year in Charts
Things, for a while, have been unprecedented. Following an 18-month quiet period for concert venues worldwide, doors slowly opened, first in the U.S. and increasingly so around the globe. This made for an excepted review of touring in 2021, but the full return of live music presents a much fuller picture this year. With the 2022 year-end Boxscore recap, precedents continue to fade as Bad Bunny finishes as the year’s top touring act (No. 1 on Top Tours) with total gross of $373.5 million from 1.8 million tickets across 65 shows. Explore All of Billboard’s 2022 Year-End Charts Bad Bunny is the first Latin act, and first act who doesn’t perform in English, to finish atop Billboard’s year-end Top Tours chart. Beyond the historic nature of his win for genre and language, he is th...
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle Send Sweet Video to Elton John on His Final U.S. Tour Date
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle sent a special message to Elton John ahead of the last U.S. show of his Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour on Sunday night (Nov. 20). “Hi Elton, we just wanted to say congratulations,” the Duchess of Sussex said in a video played during Disney+’s Countdown to Elton Live ahead of its broadcast of his final show at Dodgers Stadium in Los Angeles, which is the final North American date of his farewell tour. “And we are just so proud of you. We’re so grateful that we were able to see you on your farewell tour also.” After offering his own “congratulations,” the prince added, “And thank you for entertaining everybody for so many decades. Thank you for being the friend that you were for my mum, thank you for being our friend. Thank you for being a friend to our kids a...
Did Taylor Swift Really Have a Choice to Work With Ticketmaster?
Maybe Live Nation chairman Greg Maffei’s statement that Taylor Swift and promoter AEG “chose” to work with Ticketmaster for her calamitous onsale earlier this week should have come with an asterisk. On Thursday (Nov. 17), Maffei attempted to correct criticisms about Ticketmaster and its owner Live Nation operating as a monopoly by pointing out that Swift’s 2023 Eras Tour “is not actually a Live Nation promoted concert” but rather “promoted by one of our largest competitors.” Maffei — who is also the president of Live Nation’s largest shareholder Liberty Media — continued: “AEG who is the promoter for Taylor Swift, chose to use us because, in reality, we are the largest and most effective ticket seller in the world. Even our competitors want to come on our platform.” The...
