Live Music Industry News

Massachusetts lawmakers have introduced a so-called “Taylor Swift bill” in an attempt to protect ticket buyers from surprise fees following the Ticketmaster fiasco last fall which saw ticket prices for Swift’s 2023 Eras tour rise over $22,000 on resale sites.

MSG Entertainment shares were up more than 19% this week, while CTS Eventim and Live Nation were also among the best-performing stocks.

Ticketmaster owner Live Nation isn’t the only concerts giant that saw a huge increase in revenue in Q1 2023.

Munich-headquartered CTS Eventim reported Thursday (May 18) that its revenue soared 163% YoY in the first three months of 2023, on the back of increases in both ticket sales and in its live events segment.

The company’s consolidated revenue of €366.2 million (USD $392.93 million) compares to €139.2 million in the same period a year earlier, and €282.7 million in Q1 2019, the last comparable quarter before the Covid-19 pandemic shut down live events around the world. The latest results mark a 29.5% increase over Q1 2019.

NASHVILLE — The annual Music Biz Conference concludes here May 18 after a three-day run. And like other recent entertainment trade shows, most notably NAB, the conference hosted by the … Continue reading "Annual Music Biz Conference Tilts Toward Streaming as Paid Subscriptions Dominate Music Sales"

From Friday, May 19th at 10:00 am ET through Monday, May 22nd at 11:59 p.m. local time (or while supplies last), the discounted tickets come priced all-in, meaning all fees (besides state tax) are included upfront. The following festivals are participating in Festival Weekend:

Participating festivals include Governors Ball in New York, NY; Roots Picnic in Philadelphia, PA; FORMAT Festival in Bentonville, Arkansas; Sound on Sound in Bridgeport, Connecticut; and Adjacent Festival in Atlantic City, NJ

SeatGeek is in damage control mode after a $500 off discount code was mistakenly leaked to the public for at least an hour. The code was shared to social media on Friday, with an undisclosed number of orders able to be placed using the codes “MLB1” or “MLB2” that enabled the huge discount. The company told Action Network that it was “unwinding” the damage and cancelling orders that used the leaked code.

“On Friday night, some fans made purchases on our site using an ineligible promo code that was wrongfully distributed without authorization,” said Cameron Papp, a representative for SeatGeek, in a statement. “Tickets acquired via these purchases are not valid and we are working to resolve each situation accordingly.”

Soundclub, a social platform for live music experiences, has launched its website and mobile app. Soundclub focuses on festivals, helping fans discover and experience live music events. The free to download app, currently the number one festival discovery platform in the world, enables users to filter and view comprehensive festival information, such as line-ups, dates,

Song Suffragettes is expanding for the first time in the U.S. with a new monthly residency at City Winery in New York City.

Happening on the second Tuesday of every month beginning June 13, Song Suffragettes NYC will present five of the best female singer-songwriters from the New York boroughs and beyond. The show will feature talent from all genres in a mostly acoustic format. NYC-based artists Alexa Dark, Ariana and The Rose, Eva Westphal and Hayes Warner will kick off the series, with Jillian Dawn hosting the evening. 

LA VISTA, NE (CelebrityAccess) - Promoters Mammoth, Inc., 1% Productions and investment and development company, City+Ventures proudly announce the initial live performances scheduled at The Astro Theater, located at 8302 City Center Drive, La Vista,

If reports coming out of Virginia are accurate, Zach Bryan and AEG could be on the hook for as nearly $100 million in fines over their decision to disregard the state’s Ticket Resale Rights Act, a law passed in 2017. The country singer’s Burn, Burn, Burn tour made headlines when it was first put on sale after the singer ripped Ticketmaster, then announced he would bar all ticket resale or transfer for tickets sold for the run of shows.

Looking at media coverage over the past year, one could conclude that Ticketmaster’s parent company, US-headquartered entertainment company Live Nation, is under siege.

It’s facing a US Department of Justice antitrust investigation (not its first), a number of legislators are pushing consumer-rights bills that would affect its business model, and – perhaps most importantly – many music fans have expressed anger at Ticketmaster for what they see as excessive ticket pricing.

Yet Live Nation’s executive leadership certainly doesn’t seem to be worried. In fact, they’re elated about the company’s latest earnings report, which showed revenue up a stunning 73% YoY in Q1 2023, to USD $3.1 billion worldwide across all divisions.

Vivid Seats (NASDAQ: SEAT) saw its share price jump Tuesday with a strong Q1 earnings report and raised guidance for its 2023 marketplace GOV, revenues,

Eventbrite posted its best figures since the beginning of the pandemic as revenue surged during the first quarter of 2023.

In a trading update for the three months to March 31, Eventbrite recorded revenue of $77.9m, which was up 39% on the $55.9m posted in Q1 2022 and a three-year high.

As expected, Foo Fighters revealed their new drummer during a livestreamed event on Sunday: As expected, it’s veteran session man and longtime friend Josh Freese. The band launches a massive …

Opry Entertainment Group (OEG) and ticketing platform AXS have expanded an existing relationship to include ticketing services for the OEG-owned and operated venues ACL Live (at The Moody Theater) and 3TEN ACL Live, in Austin, Texas.

Sony Music Masterworks, a division of Sony Music Entertainment (SME), has acquired a majority stake in Barcelona-headquartered Proactiv Entertainment, a producer of live music and experiential events worldwide.

In a statement issued Thursday (May 18), Masterworks described the acquisition as “the latest in a series of strategic partnerships and agreements advancing Sony Music Masterworks’ growth as a multi-faceted worldwide entertainment business.”

As live music events continue to rebound from the COVID-19 pandemic, Apple Music has expanded its curation efforts into the live music space.

The music streaming service has introduced new concert discovery features on Apple Maps and Apple Music

The Foo Fighters announced plans to host a free global streaming event on Sunday night that will feature performances of the band’s music and behind the scenes footage of the creation project for their upcoming album and tour.

The stream, which is titled Foo Fighters: Preparing Music for Concerts, kicks off at 3 p.m. Eastern and will be available on demand through May 24th. While the stream is free, registration is required and fans can sign up through Veeps.

The fourth edition of ecolibrium’s Green Travel Guide for Festivals and Events is packed with new information, case studies and future transport trends, May 2023. ecolibrium, the charity on a mission to move low carbon travel to the heart of live events culture, has launched a new guide for 2023. 

New York’s Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment has announced the full schedule of free programming for the sixth annual New York Music Month, taking place in June with concerts, performances, industry talks and workshops, and the community-sourced calendar for users to upload free and ticketed music events happening across the five boroughs — see the full schedule at NYMusicMonth.NYC. 

ADVERTISEMENT

Apple Music, Apple Music, Apple Maps, and Shazam have expanded concert discovery across all three platforms leveraging concert data from Bandsintown.

Artists and venues publishing shows on Bandsintown will now also see them spread to key components of the Apple ecosystem. Bandsintown already sends more than 500,000 fans daily to buy tickets, and this marks a major expansion of its mission to empower artists to publish tour dates once and share them automatically across the web.

Today, LiveCo, the growing private equity-backed entertainment company focused on delivering consumer experiences across various areas and genres of live entertainment, has announced the appointment of Steve Tadlock as Senior Vice

Taylor Swift Wraps Up Nashville Show Past 1:30 a.m., in Driving Rain, After Long Lightning Delay: ‘We All Look Like River Otters’
Many fans seemed even more enthusiastic after being held to the stadium's concourses for several hours, and after rain poured — on the crowd and Swift alike — for the last two-thirds of the epic late-night concert

Eventbrite (NYSE: EB) saw its stock jump by nearly 15% as trading opened Wednesday after the self-service event ticketing platform reported its Q1

The Eras Tour is a bona fide phenomenon, with huge crowds and rave reviews for Taylor Swift’s run of shows. Tickets have been so sought after, however, that the singer’s fans have been put through the wringer. From the badly botched presale in November (that led to a hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee) to lawsuits filed by frustrated Swifties, to the slow drip-drip-drip of tickets being released into the market by event promoters, it has been a stressful time for many fans.

And that stress, according to multiple reports, is causing many consumers to be at serious risk of falling prey to scammers, who are using various channels to tempt fans with ticket prices that are, in fact, too good to be true.