Touring
Racism on the Road: The Oral History of Black Artists Touring in the Segregated South
“We were happy, we were singing, we were joyful, we were away from home for the first time, youngsters on a magical show,” recalls Martha Reeves, lead singer of the girl group Martha Reeves and the Vandellas, who toured through the South as part of Motown’s pioneering tours in the early ’60s. “But being met with the hatred, it was alarming — especially when the bus was shot at.” Below, Billboard presents an oral history of Black touring artists in the ’50s and ’60s, including interviews with Rock and Roll Hall of Famers and one-hit wonders, stars from the Motown and Stax soul labels, and veterans of the Motown Revue and Dick Clark’s Caravan of Stars. All remain shocked and angry at the racism they experienced, mostly in the South, but a...
Live Nation’s Third Quarter Earnings: Five Questions Answered
But the game of attrition could end next summer. Live Nation’s earnings call Thursday became outdated after news of a successful COVID-19 vaccine trial was released on Monday (Nov. 9). Its share price jumped as much as 38.7% Monday morning after drug companies Pfizer and BioNTech announced their vaccine was 90% effective in a large-scale trial. The vaccine could be available late this year and widely distributed before the lucrative summer touring season. Keeping in mind the recent news, here are five questions that were answered with Live Nation’s third-quarter earnings. Where does Live Nation’s liquidity stand? Live Nation has enough capital to last through 2021. On Sept. 30, Live Nation had $2.6 billion of total cash and cash equivalents (vs. $3.3 billion in the second quarter), includi...
Top Music Execs & Their Employees Aren’t Donating to the Same Political Candidates
“I don’t love that [Phil] supports all these right wing causes, but his political beliefs are so far detached from the work we do and our company values,” explains one high ranking executive, who notes that despite being very conservative, Anschutz supports LGBT causes and has given millions to groups some describe as being left of center. Employees at Liberty Media, which owns SiriusXM, Pandora and a 35% stake in Live Nation, for the first time ever have given more money to Democratic candidates than Republican ones. In 2020, individuals at the company gave $209,374 to Democrats and $92,485 to Republicans — more than a 2-1 margin. Back in 2016, Democrats only received $134,636 while $385,700 was spent on Republican candidates, while in 2012, only $12,500 was spent on Democrats with ...
Metallica, My Chemical Romance to Headline Expanded 2021 Aftershock Festival
Aftershock 2021 will be headlined by Metallica (performing two different sets, one on Friday and one on Sunday) and My Chemical Romance (Saturday), who were both confirmed for the sold-out 2020 event. The 2021 lineup will also include Limp Bizkit, Rancid, The Offspring, Social Distortion, Rise Against, Volbeat, Machine Gun Kelly, Mastodon, Gojira, SEETHER, Parkway Drive and many more. “We can’t wait to play at Aftershock 2021 with our Bay Area brothers Metallica,” Rancid said in a statement. “We first played with them on the Lollapalooza tour in 1996 along with the Ramones and later down the road we toured across South America together. It’s gonna be wild, see ya in the pit!” In 2019, Aftershock celebrated its biggest-ever year with 97,500 in attendance during the sold-out...
Miami Club LIV Caught In Power Struggle over COVID-19
The puppeteer behind the parties and arguably the king of South Beach’s nightlife scene, LIV owner David Grutman, stopped by a few months ago to look at new upholstery, but he mostly stays away from the club at the center of his hospitality empire. “I cried real tears,” the 46-year-old Grutman said of his last visit to the shuttered club and nightlife’s seemingly bygone era. “It’s really been my lifeblood.” Technically, LIV and Miami’s other nightclubs could reopen at 50% capacity under an ordered issued Sept. 25 by Gov. Ron DeSantis. But Miami leaders have imposed a midnight curfew — a real buzzkill for a scene that doesn’t even get started until the a.m. hours — and are restricting loud music so that people don’t have to shout and risk spreading the virus through their spittle. Also, a l...
In Mexico, the World’s Third-Largest Concert Promoter Prepares For Live Music’s Return
Alejandro Soberón Kuri talks growth, global trends and the company’s near-deal with Live Nation. Alejandro Soberón Kuri founded OCESA in 1990 to establish Mexico as an obligatory tour stop for international artists. He ended up building a global concert powerhouse third only to Live Nation and AEG. “Mexico may not be the third-biggest country in the world, but it has the third-largest live event promoter,” says Soberón Kuri, 60, from his CEO office in Mexico City — though neither he nor his colleagues have been working there during the pandemic, as major venues remain closed across the country. In 2019, OCESA’s holding company, Grupo Corporación Interamericana de Entretenimiento, produced over 3,400 shows from the United States to Colombia and throughout Central America, ...
Hip-Hop Agent Brent Smith Out at WME Following Investigation
Hip-hop agent Brent Smith is out at WME, weeks after he was suspended for reported behavioral issues. “Following an investigation based on complaints of bullying behavior by Brent Smith, WME and Brent have mutually decided to part ways,” reads a statement from the agency. Smith, 55, represents Drake, Kendrick Lamar, Tyler the Creator and John Legend. Smith did not respond to a request for comment from Billboard. 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 chatting, sharing photos, blogging and help give users back their fair share of Internet revenue.
Executive Turntable: Atlantic Shuffles Marketing Department, Sony & Tencent Solidify Liquid State Label Head
Elsewhere at Atlantic, the label has announced that David Grant will move from New York to Los Angeles to take on the role of senior vp, marketing and head of marketing for film & TV soundtracks. In his dual role, Grant will continue running key projects from Why Don’t We, Ben Platt, Reiley and more. He will jointly report to Sinclair and Atlantic’s West Coast president Kevin Weaver. Sony Music Masterworks and independent touring professionals Stephen Lindsay and Brett Sirota have formed RoadCo Entertainment, a brand-new booking agency that specializes in live family entertainment. RoadCo will develop and produce live events and interactive attractions based on popular brands and pre-existing intellectual properties while collaborating with Sony Masterworks and the broader Sony network...
Why Jonathan Shank Left Red Light to Launch His Own Touring Company Amid a Global Concert Shutdown
Why did you decide to launch Terrapin Station Entertainment? Ultimately the goal was to be able to continue to be aggressive and utilize this time to grow and scale and come out of this with great content and great music. Red Light was super supportive of all of the projects that I took on, but they were family shows. I was carving my own lane. Did you feel like you kind of had to go independent to pivot and be agile? Yeah, and having the ability to continue to be aggressive in the intellectual property space and continue to support my team. With these types of artists and projects, you have to have a really strong team. I felt that this is a great time to go out and license a lot of IP for the future. If you can be aggressive in that space, then when the clouds lift, we have a really stro...
Consumer Interest in Paid Livestreams Surging, According to New Data
Over the course of the last three months (July 1-Sept. 30), engagement with IRL events has remained steady (up 4%, comparing engagement from the month of September to that of July) and interactions with free livestreams has declined (down 26%). In the same tracking period, ticket clicks on paid livestreams has risen by 577%. In July, ticket clicks on paid livestreams accounted for 3.3% of all activity on Bandsintown, at just 70,136 clicks, compared to 1.54 million on IRL events and 485,000 on free livestreams. That percentage leapt to 12.6% in August and then to 19.5% in September, stretching July’s 70,000 count to 475,057 ticket clicks. Zooming in on free livestreams vs. paid livestreams (removing IRL events from the equation), ticket clicks on paid events were just 14% of the engagement ...
Australia’s Live Industry Welcomes Fine for Viagogo
In one example, the ACCC said the total price for two Cat Stevens (aka Yusuf Islam) tickets was found to increase from A$450.00 ($357) to A$579.95 ($460), a rise of 29%, when the A$125 ($100) booking and A$4.95 ($4) handling fees were added. Justice Burley described one category of representations as having been made on “an industrial scale”. The company’s business practices were “unacceptable,” says ACCC Chair Rod Sims. “Viagogo misled thousands of consumers into buying tickets at inflated prices when they created a false sense of urgency by suggesting tickets were scarce and when they advertised tickets at a lower price by not including unavoidable fees.” The federal court’s stiff penalty is meant as a warning to other companies that breached consumer protections. The court also or...
Indie Venues Devastated After Trump Kills Stimulus Talks: ‘This Is Real. We Need Help’
“It’s devastatingly horrible news,” says Stephen Chilton with the Rebel Lounge in Phoenix. “More venues are going to close — I think the reason we haven’t seen even more venues shut down is because everyone is holding out hope that Save Our Stages passes. I’m not sure how much longer people can hold on — there’s rent, there’s debt obligations and there’s a lot of costs. It’s already been six months with zero revenue.” The news came as a major disappointment for two major independent arts associations who were encouraged last week when Pelosi announced that the Save Our Stages Act would be included in the $2.2 trillion Heroes Act. Save Our Stages would have provided up to $18 million to any independent music ...
