Touring
Danny Wimmer Presents Launches BrandMark, With Maureen Valker-Barlow at Helm
Danny Wimmer Presents has spun off its sponsorship and branding department into BrandMark Agency, a wholly owned standalone business run by DWP’s evp Maureen Valker-Barlow who will now serve as president of BrandMark. Valker-Barlow joined DWP in 2019 after holding various sales roles at record labels and at agencies with clients that include Anheuser-Busch, BMG, Bushmills Irish Whiskey, Cantu Beauty, Jack Daniel’s, KAMP (K-Pop Festival), Kona Brewing Co., Manic Panic, Proof Media Mix, Rockstar Energy Drink, Shelter Music Group and Zenni Optics, among others. You Deserve to Make Money Even When you are looking for Dates Online. So we reimagined what a dating should be. It begins with giving you back power. Get to meet Beautiful people, chat and make money in the process. Earn rewards by cha...
Michael Rapino, Other Live Nation Execs Partially Forfeit Bonuses Due to COVID-19
Live Nation President Joe Berchtold and chief financial officer Kathy Willard also forfeited restricted stock today due to the revenue miss. A spokesperson for Live Nation told Billboard that regular stock and cash payments were also reduced as part of the adjustment. In April, Rapino announced he was reducing his salary to $0 as part of a cost-savings initiative at the company brought on by the pandemic. In 2019, the company’s compensation committee agreed to pay Rapino a $6 million cash bonus if the company achieved an adjusted operating income of $875.0 million, and between $6 to $12 million if he hit between 100% and 110% of the AOI target. Rapino ended up hitting 109% of his target AOI ($942 million) for a cash award of $11.4 million, which he deferred until the end o...
Attorney Plans to File Dozens of Refund Lawsuits Against Ultra Miami
“We are seeking a global settlement with [Event Entertainment Group] that will address our clients’ request for refunds” plus attorneys fees, Corwin tells Billboard. “Settlement is a better path than continued litigation for both the consumer and the defendant and I am hopeful that by filing these actions we can come to a mutually agreeable resolution. While Corwin insists his strategy isn’t to inundate Ultra with dozens of small claims, the tactic has definitely gotten their attention. “I’m trying to stop the flow of people being screwed,” says Corwin, who previously worked as a concert promoter before becoming an attorney in the 1980s. “Many consumers don’t read all the terms and conditions before filing a claim” and don’t realize they’ll get a VIP ticket for next year’s festival i...
Paradigm Agrees to Sell Music Division to Wasserman
Gores added: “We are huge fans of Casey Wasserman and the company he’s built, and I am very pleased that he and his team will be at the helm of this important business line. It’s both thrilling and bittersweet to reach this agreement, transition to a new era for Paradigm, and initiate a stabilizing solution during a global pandemic that has created an existential crisis for our industry.” The Beverly Hills-based Paradigm’s roster includes Ed Sheeran, Billie Eilish, Coldplay, Kacey Musgraves, Imagine Dragons and many other top-selling artists. The firm, run by chairman Gores, has built up its music division through years of acquiring boutique talent and management companies, including Monterey Peninsula Artists, Little Big Man, Third Coast Artists Agency, AM Only, Windish Agencies and...
Meet the Nonprofits Feeding Thousands of Out-Of-Work Touring Staff
The live events industry breathed a sigh of relief when Congress passed the Shuttered Venue Operators Grant providing $15 billion to shuttered venues and independent promoters in December, but Espinoza says it’s “disrespectful” that no legislation passed to support event workers. While venues await their funding, Roadiecare is among several industry-adjacent nonprofits stepping up to feed and employ event workers who are without their usual income for the foreseeable future. Live event crew members were hit particularly hard by the pandemic due to complicated unemployment guidelines in the 2020 CARES Act. The pandemic relief legislation allowed for freelance workers to apply for Pandemic Unemploy...
J Balvin Adds Karol G, Jhay Cortez, Tainy, Rauw Alejandro & More to Neón in Las Vegas
The Neón Experience will take place in Las Vegas during Mexican Independence Weekend, September 16-19, which traditionally has been a huge weekend for Latin music in Vegas, typically featuring big stars playing arena shows. Balvin’s event, coming in the wake of the pandemic, is something else entirely. Capped at just 3,000 tickets, the three days and nights of events are being curated by Balvin and will include a headlining concert with him. Different “experiences” will take place in various locales in the new Resorts World Las Vegas, including its entertainment venues Zouk Nightclub and Ayu Dayclub. The centerpiece of the event is a 90-minute concert headlined by Balvin where, for the first time, he’ll sing the songs from his Colores album live. “It’s the first event weR...
Ontario Government Injects $2 Million Into Canada’s Ailing Music Sector
The Government of Ontario says it will inject $2.5 million (USD $2 million) into the struggling Canadian music industry by investing in two non-profit groups. The Canadian Live Music Association (CLMA) will receive $500,000 (USD $400,000) to aid the live industry all over the province, Lisa MacLeod, Ontario’s Minister of Heritage, Sport, Tourism and Culture, announced today (March 12). The provincial government will also provide $2 million (USD $1.6 million) in COVID-19 relief to the Unison Fund, the Canadian music industry’s emergency charity, which provides financial assistance and counseling services for musicians and industry members. You Deserve to Make Money Even When you are looking for Dates Online. So we reimagined what a dating should be. It begins with giving you back power. Get...
Armin van Buuren Postpones “This Is Me” Tour Dates to Summer 2022
Legendary trance producer Armin van Buuren has postponed the dates of his “This Is Me” tour due to the impact of COVID-19. According to the FAQ section of the tour’s website, the dates have been rescheduled to June 2022. The four-day affair will now take place June 2nd to 5th, 2022, at the fabled Dutch concert venue Ziggo Dome. It’s worth noting that the Ziggo Dome recently hosted a clubbing experiment with a sample of 1,300 attendees. The trial concert, which organizers called “historic,” was planned in order for health officials to analyze Dutch regulations and safety procedures as Amsterdam slowly reopens in light of COVID-19. Sam Feldt, Sunnery James & Ryan Marciano, and Lady Bee performed, among other DJs. You can read m...
Bill Harkin, Designer of Glastonbury Festival’s Pyramid Stage, Dies at 83
Glastonbury Festival founder Michael Eavis pays tribute to Harkin, whose ideas were so unusual they took some time to sink in. “I liked the idea but was slightly wary of the reality, although was captivated by their childlike excitement,” recounts Eavis, the dairy farmer who turned a small concert on his property into the world-famous event, with the help of Harkin. A top-flight architect working for British Leyland car launches, Harkin first came to Glastonbury toward the end of 1970, following the first iteration of the event. The original stage was erected out of scaffolding and plastic sheeting and made its debut for the second edition of Glastonbury Festival, in 1971. Several versions of the Pyramid Stage have popped up over the years, one of which burned down shortly before the 1994 ...
Music’s First Blockchain Ticketer Big Neon Has Run Out of Money
Big Neon was billed as music’s first blockchain ticketing company when it launched at the end of 2018 and announced plans top become a token-based system by 2020 and the eventual “spiritual successor” to Ticketfly. But 27 months after launching, the mobile-based ticketing system has run out of money and is now shutting its doors, co-founders Dan Teree and Ryan O’Connor confirm to Billboard. Earlier this week, Teree and O’Connor sent to a note to venue clients like the Midway and Bimbo’s 365 in San Francisco, the Gas Monkey in Dallas and The Exit/In in Nashville announcing Big Neon’s plans to close effective March 30. “It is with great regret that Big Neon has decided to cease operations,” the letter read. “This was ...
Josh Humiston, APA Partner and Music Agent, Dies at 48
Born in Santa Monica on March 18, 1972, Humiston graduated from Beverly Hills High School and then Boston University. He joined APA in 1995 and was upped to vp concerts in 2001, responsible for developing and overseeing the agency’s modern rock department. According to APA, Humiston was a passionate golfer, an ardent Los Angeles Kings, Lakers and Dodgers fan and a “recurring, enthusiastic fixture” at their games. Survivors include his wife, Jaime, and their daughters, Isabella and Juliana; his parents, Jan and Robert; siblings Alison and Matthew; sister-in-law Lisa; and nieces Mila and Rachel. Due to COVID-19 restrictions, a funeral for immediate family only will be held Sunday at Hillside Memorial Park and Mortuary in Los Angeles, with a celebration of his life to be sch...
The Chicks’ Tour Company Files $6.6 Million Suit Over Rejected Insurance Claim
Tunshoe said that their insurance providers have taken “unreasonable legal positions in direct conflict with specifically negotiated contractual language and engaged in a ten-month campaign of repeated irrelevant questions and stall tactics,” according to the lawsuit. The insurance policies were in effect from Jan. 20, 2020 until Sept. 18 and provided insurance of “Up to $40,400,000 representing 80% ‘To Pay’ of Gross Guarantee of USD 50,500,000” should the tour be “necessarily cancelled, abandoned, postponed, interrupted or relocated” as a result of any reason not excluded, per the Chicks’ lawsuit. They list the “Insured Persons” as the “Dixie Chicks being Martie Erwin Maguire, Emily Erwin Robison and Natalie Maines...
