Touring
Jenifer Smith Now Heads Urban Tour Marketing at Live Nation Concerts
Jenifer Smith has been named head of urban tour marketing & strategy at Live Nation Concerts. Smith, who oversaw the global marketing efforts for the recently announced Fugees reunion tour, will supervise the team supporting the concerts division’s roster of R&B/hip-hop tours. Among the established and rising artists that Smith will be supporting across tours and key festivals are Beyoncé, Jay-Z, Drake, The Weeknd, Travis Scott, Kendrick Lamar, J. Cole, H.E.R., Young Thug and Jack Harlow. She will also be developing and building out Live Nation’s urban tour marketing team. In a statement announcing Smith’s new executive post, Omar Al-joulani, head of talent & touring for Live Nation Concerts, said, “Whether it’s artists or our own internal team, Live Nation is always inve...
Tomorrowland Looks to Expand to Three Weekends to Recover Pandemic Losses
Wilmsen notes that it’s currently unclear how long it might take for the municipalities to evaluate this request. “We hope soon,” she says. The pandemic has dealt a series of blows to Tomorrowland, which typically hosts roughly 400,000 attendees over two weekends each summer. Since the beginning of the pandemic, Tomorrowland has been forced to cancel six festivals — four total weekends in Belgium (in 2019 and 2020) and a pair of Tomorrowland’s winter events in France. Wilmsen says that organizers never intended to expand to three weekends, but are doing so in an attempt to recoup 5 million euros ($5.8 million) in lost revenue the company experienced in 2021 and an additional 20 million euros ($23 million) in anticipated losses. Expanding to three weekends woul...
Australia’s Top Promoters Launch Contest for Concert Tickets, But You Must be Vaccinated to Apply
To be eligible, you must be over 18; be a resident of Australia; enter within the competition window (Sept. 15-Nov. 30); answer a simple question; and “be fully vaccinated under the Australian national COVID-19 vaccination program,” a statement reads. Winners will get a plus-one to see the likes of Dua Lipa, Alanis Morissette, Kiss, Lorde, David Gray, Tyler, the Creator and many others, with the concerts calendar adding dates on a daily basis. The novel campaign is an extension of #VAXTHENATION, a nationwide call-out launched earlier this month, and led by hundreds of musicians, industry leaders and businesses. It’s an initiative of the so-called LIVE Alliance, a gathering of industry stakeholders and advocates, including the Association of Artist Managers (AAM), APRA AMCOS, ARIA, Australi...
Eco-Conscious, Safety-Centric, Tech-Savvy: 35 New & Renovated Venues to Watch in 2021
Madison Square Garden’s ambitious Las Vegas Sphere continues to be one of the most anticipated music venues in the world, with a price tag of $1.8 billion. Set to open in 2023 following pandemic-related construction delays, the structure will be anchored by what is touted as the largest and highest-resolution LED screen on earth, which will cover an area larger than three football fields. The screen is intended to create an immersive, virtual reality-style experience for ticket holders. In June, MSG completed the construction of the Sphere’s steel frame, while the exosphere is still under construction. Nashville Yards (Nashville)Concert capacity: 4,000 Developed by Southwest Value Partners, the 18-acre Nashville Yards complex will include a 1.3-acre park, two office towers for Amazon Nashv...
‘Wicked,’ ‘The Lion King’ and ‘Hamilton Reopen to Cheers on Broadway
“The Lion King,” “Hamilton” and “Wicked” all staked out Tuesday to reopen together in early May after then-New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo picked Sept. 14 for when Broadway could begin welcoming back audiences at full capacity. The trio of shows were beaten by Bruce Springsteen’s concert show in June and the opening of the new play “Pass Over” on Aug. 22, as well as the reopening of two big musicals — “Hadestown” and “Waitress.” But the return of the three musicals — the spiritual anchors of modern Broadway’s success — as well as the return of the long-running “Chicago” and the reopening of the iconic TKTS booth, both also on Tuesday, are important signals that Broadway is back, despite pressure and uncertainty from the spread of the delta variant. The crowds virtually blew the roof off the thr...
Ad.Ventures Is Ready to Bring Big Branding Dollars to Venues
“There is a ton of value that we could provide, simply by representing the same folks that are a part of NIVA through sponsorship brand opportunities and new business development,” Sternschein tells Billboard. He’s quick to point out that Ad.Ventures is a totally separate for-profit business that’s not part of NIVA, but says he hopes to help members compete for ad dollars against larger companies by representing multiple venues around the country to national and global brands. The concept for Ad.Ventures is fairly simple – major brands are increasingly looking for a scalable way to spend their marketing dollars and interact with live music consumers, but it’s difficult for a single indie venue to get a piece of the action. Promoters like AEG and Live Nation hav...
Backstreet Boys Cancel Las Vegas Holiday Residency, Postpone Christmas Album Over COVID-19 Restrictions
The pop quintet — comprising Nick Carter, Howie Dorough, Brian Littrell, AJ McLean and Kevin Richardson — was scheduled for a residency in November and December at Las Vegas’ Zappos Theater inside Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino. The A Very Backstreet Christmas Party dates were to be the group’s “first-ever holiday shows, filled with classic holiday favorites, new originals and their biggest hits,” the act’s website states. Ticket refunds for the Las Vegas residency will be issued automatically at the point of purchase. Th 12-show run was set to arrive three years after the band’s record-shattering Backstreet Boys: Larger Than Life residency at the Zappos Theater. The group’s residency grossed $34.4 million from the total 62 s...
Bush Cancels Tour With Stone Temple Pilots Due to ‘COVID-Related Circumstances’
Bush and Stone Temple Pilots‘ upcoming co-headlining tour has been called off, the bands announced on social media. “Due to unfortunate and unavoidable COVID-related circumstances, we will be unable to move forward with our planned fall tour dates — including our festival appearances and our tour with Stone Temple Pilots,” Bush posted Friday night (Sept. 10). “We cannot stress enough how heart-breaking it is to not be able to go out and play after all of this time, and after all of our attempted starts and ensuing stops over the past year and a half. We wish to extend our deepest apologies as this is the last thing we would want for all our great fans as well as our good friends in Stone Temple Pilots,” their message read. You Deserve to Make Money Even ...
StubHub Clears Final Hurdle of Viagogo Merger With Sale of Non-U.S. Assets
The sale ends a period of government-imposed silence between the two firms, which were allowed to communicate while the agreement worked its ways through the U.K. regulator system. “We are finally allowed to collaborate and begin planning the integration between the two companies,” says Jill Krimmel, StubHub’s interim president who said she will stay on as president once the integration is complete. That process couldn’t begin until the sale of StubHub’s international business was completed. It’s unclear how much Digital Fuel Capital paid for the international assets, which include 23 companies and limited liability corporations held by StubHub including its branded marketplaces in the U.K., Germany, Taiwan and parts of Europe through its Luxembourg ...
Neumos in Seattle, in a Pandemic: No-Show Rates Are 20-30%
What were your thoughts when you saw Bonnaroo was canceled? That was so brutal because that’s not even COVID that f–ked it. It was mother nature. People talk about Bonnaroo cancelling and are like, “Oh yeah. That sucks.” But they don’t think about the ripple effect. It’s massive. Bands are all routed around Bonnaroo and this impacts all those shows. They just got pummeled too. All the bus drivers, the lighting rig techs, and everyone lost jobs. It’s Manchester, Tennessee. That’s probably a huge economic driver for that city. It’s devastating. There were bands that were looking at that gig and thinking, “That’s going to pay my rent.” All those people are on-site building it out and they just got pummeled. Putting somethi...
Australia’s Music Industry Joins Forces For National Vaccine Campaign
“Help us stop the interruptions and get vaxxed as soon as you can,” reads a campaign statement. “Every jab makes a difference, and every Australian can play their part.” It’s powered by the newly-formed LIVE Alliance, which includes reps from organizations including ARIA, APRA AMCOS, Assn. of Artist Managers (AAM), Australian Live Music Business Council (ALMBC), TEG and others. Sworn rivals Frontier Touring and Live Nation are core members of the Alliance, and both have buried the hatchet for the campaign. “To see all the main organizations across all facets of the industry come together and work together to drive this, it’s great to see,” enthuses Matt Gudinski, CEO of Mushroom Group, parent of Frontier Touring. For the music business, he tells Billboard, “there’s really no pathway out of...
Pepe Aguilar’s ‘Jaripeo Sin Fronteras’ Tour Hits the Road With Billboard Chart Hits
The 18-date experience, starting on Friday (Sept. 3), features Aguilar family members, Banda MS & El Mariachi “El Zacatecano.” Pepe Aguilar‘s enthusiasts are in for a treat as the Tejano singer-songwriter returns with the Jaripeo Sin Fronteras 2021 tour, resuming Friday night (Sept. 3) at the Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif., and traveling through 17 other cities before wrapping Dec. 5 in San Jose, Calif. Produced by Live Nation, the tour picks up after its run in the U.S. and Mexico in 2018-19. The 18-date leg sports a crew of 150, including 40 stage musicians, backed by Aguilar’s band El Mariachi “El Zacatecano,” the musical accompaniment of Sinaloa’s Banda MS and his brother Antonio Aguilar, daughter Angela Aguilar and son Leonardo Aguilar. T...
