Touring
Not So Fast: Shuttered Venue Grant Application Relaunch Moves Dates Again
They followed up with additional tweets stating, “It is our top priority to deliver on the promise and commitment to provide economic lifelines to these hardest-hit venues ASAP,” and, “Yet, we understand the challenges a weekend opening would bring and to ensure the greatest number of businesses can apply for these funds, we decided to reschedule. We remain committed to delivering economic aid to this hard-hit sector quickly and efficiently.” The account applicants to visit this link to review a checklist of items they might need for the loans, which can be found here. The relaunch is a result of the SBA’s website crashing on April 8 as venues operators, talent agencies, cinema owners and managers of museums, cultural arts groups and zoos applied for $15 billi...
SBA Shares More Details About Shuttered Venues Grant Relaunch
The SBA’s decision to reopen the portal on Saturday, more than two weeks after it crashed upon on launch on April 8, was met with a flurry of negative comments Thursday due to the short advanced notice. But representatives with the National Independent Venue Association (NIVA), which played a key role drafting the $15 billion Shuttered Venue Operators aid package, released a statement supporting the decision to reopen the application process on a weekend day. “Simply put, this is emergency relief that can’t come too soon,” says Audrey Fix Schaefer, NIVA board member and communications director. “Every single day that passes small businesses are receiving eviction notices, all the while $16 billion has been waiting for them. This is a lifeline for thousands of independent venues and promote...
Executive of the Week: CMN CEO Henry Cárdenas
“Never, no one expected that,” Cárdenas tells Billboard. “In fact, Noah [Assad, Bad Bunny’s manager] called me like three days before and said, ‘How many tickets do you think we’ll sell [in presale]?’ He thought it’d be around 150,000. I told him 200,000…. If Bad Bunny puts 50 dates more on sale today, he’ll sell them. In Miami, we sold out his three shows and there were 97,000 people waiting online to buy tickets.” Bad Bunny is arguably the hottest artist in the world right now, and ended 2020 as the most streamed act on Spotify. That he would sell was not in question. But, how did the Chicago-based CMN capitalize on the potential, and how did Cárdenas land the deal? Here, he explains what went into booking this tour when live music still seems so far away for so many. I have to thi...
Shuttered Venue Grant Applications to Resume Over the Weekend
“We have completed rigorous testing and the Shuttered Venue Operators Grant application portal will reopen on April 24,” the SBA announced on Twitter at 9 p.m. EST on Thursday. “We will provide updated documents and guidance tomorrow. Interested applicants should register for an account in advance.” The link to the portal is svograntportal.sba.gov. Since the Shuttered Venue Operators Grant was passed in late December, the SBA has been tasked with creating the program and processes from scratch. Andrea Roebker, a regional communications director at the SBA, told Billboard in March that while the SBA was able to distribute Paycheck Protection Program loans soon after the CARES Act passed in March 2020, those were handled by delegate...
Resorts World Las Vegas Teases Music Lineup With Carrie Underwood, Katy Perry & More
There’s a lot going on here — but what does it all mean? Billboard reported last week that Tiësto has signed a three-year deal with Resorts World’s Zouk Nightclub and Ayu Dayclub, and Zedd has also been announced for the nightlife venues, but there has been no official word yet from the resort about residencies for Perry, Underwood, Bryan or Dion at the 5,000-capacity theater. According to a press release accompanying the promo, “The commercial offers a sneak peek of the astounding entertainment to come as a result of the unprecedented partnerships between Resorts World Las Vegas, Concerts West / AEG Presents and Zouk Group.” Details about the resort’s live lineup will be announced in the coming weeks, and the hotel is now booking reservations start...
EDC Las Vegas 2021 Is Pushed Back to October: ‘We Can’t Take That Risk’
“We just had a meeting in Las Vegas this past Friday with police, fire, medical, and other agencies involved with EDC to plan out details surrounding the event,” the statement continues. “However, today, Clark County (home of EDC & the Las Vegas Motor Speedway) passed a reopening plan that requires 60% of their residents to be vaccinated before restrictions over large scale gatherings such as EDC can be lifted. It might happen in time, it might not. Either way, we can’t take that risk.” Read the complete statement below. Rotella goes on to note that the event, which typically draws 125,000 people per day and features a lineup of hundreds of artists, was in the midst of being built, with “over 40 trucks en route to the Las Vegas Motor Speedway from all over...
Congress Members Call on Biden to Investigate Live Nation
The letter points to a 2018 Government Accountability Office report, which concluded that Live Nation holds more than 80% of the U.S. venue ticket sales market. It goes on to add that the Department of Justice has found that the promoter has repeatedly violated the terms of the agreement over the course of the last 10 years by threatening venues and forcing the bundling of artists with ticketing services. In 2019, Live Nation reached a settlement with the DOJ’s antitrust division agreeing to extend the 2010 consent decree governing the merger of Ticketmaster and Live Nation to 2025 and clarifying rules regarding threats and retaliation against venues that don’t sign with the ticketing giant. “We believe the prior admin...
Billboard Parent P-MRC Strikes Deal to Invest In SXSW
South by Southwest has struck a deal with P-MRC, a joint venture between Penske Media Corporation and MRC that includes publishing brands such as Billboard and The Hollywood Reporter, that will make P-MRC a long-term partner and stakeholder in the festival, the companies announced in a joint release Sunday night (April 18). South by Southwest has struck a deal with P-MRC, a joint venture between Penske Media Corporation and MRC that includes publishing brands such as The Hollywood Reporter, that will make P-MRC a long-term partner and stakeholder in the festival, the companies announced in a joint release Sunday night. P-MRC — whose holdings also include Rolling Stone, Variety and Vibe — will bring “media expertise and new avenues for discovery” to...
Shuttered Venue Operator Grant Applications Expected to Relaunch Next Week
The SBA said the vendors for the portal, which launched and quickly closed on April 8, have fixed the root cause of the technical difficulties but discovered additional issues while testing the site. The newly identified issues are being addressed now before the portal reopens later next week. Independent venues, promoters and producers have been waiting to apply for the more than $16 billion in funds since the bill passed at the end of December, but the SBA was tasked with creating the program from scratch and has taken nearly four months to open the application process. When the administration announced the opening date for the grant applications, they assured venues that funds would be awarded later in April. The SBA has not commented on whether or not th...
LA’s Staples Center Reopening: Behind the Pandemic Safety Precautions
Staples Center is California’s first professional indoor sports arena to reopen to the public — Orange County’s Honda Center opens Friday with an Anaheim Ducks game, followed next week with San Francisco’s Chase Center and Sacramento’s Golden 1 Center. The Staples Center reopening is being done under guidelines from the state and the Los Angeles County health department, Zeidman says. Attendees will be required to wear a mask while inside the Staples Center and must show proof of vaccination (which can be a picture of their vaccine card) or a negative COVID-19 test within 72 hours of tip off. Fans will also be asked to maintain social distancing and seats will be organized in socially distanced pods. Fans will be not be permitted to eat on the concourse, ...
Boxscore Flashback: 10 Years Ago, U2 Set The All-Time Boxscore Record With The 360 Tour
Bad Bunny Announces 2022 El Último Tour del Mundo Tour Following WrestleMania Debut | Billboard News After two years of relative silence, U2 returned with their 12th studio album, 2009’s No Line on the Horizon. The band hit the ground running (in their sexy boots), with the album debuting atop the Billboard 200, their seventh set to crown the chart. The U2 360° Tour was routed in-the-round in stadiums across three years and five continents. It kicked off with two shows at Camp Nou in Barcelona (June 30 and July 2, 2009), throwing down the gauntlet for the years to come with a $19.8 million gross and attendance of 182,000. The initial European leg kept up the pace with $20 million grosses in Paris and London, and a crowning haul of $28.8 million and 243,000 attendance over three nights at D...
Andrea Bocelli Announces US Arena Tour
The San Jose date at SAP Center currently scheduled for May 16 will be postponed to a future date. For those unable to make the new date upon announcement, refunds will be available from point of purchase. General on sale for all new shows and new on sales for postponed shows will be May 3 at 10am local time. Additionally, the Andrea Bocelli Foundation and “Believe” US Tour is proud to partner with PLUS1 so that $1 from every ticket sale throughout the tour will go towards empowering people and communities in situations of poverty, illiteracy, and distress due to illness and social exclusion. Check out a full list of dates below. Believe North American Tour Oct. 13, 2021 / Milwaukee, WI / Fiserv Forum* OCT 14, 2021 / Rosemont, IL / Allstate Arena*Oct. 16, 2021 / Kansas City, MO / T-Mobile ...
