Live Music Industry News

Last week, I went to see one of my favorite artists, Theo Katzman, play the Wiltern Theater in Los Angeles. Theo, who I recently featured on the New Music Business podcast, is a completely independent artist — no label; no manager. 

I wanted to avoid the exorbitant service fees tacked onto the tickets when purchasing online, so I showed up to the Wiltern’s box office the moment it opened on show day to snag (what I thought would be) a $30 “face value” ticket. However, when it came time to pay, the clerk told me that it would be $35. “There’s a $5 per ticket service fee added” she explained.  I asked her, “How can I avoid the service fee?” She replied: “You can’t.”

Coachella has reportedly been fined $117,000 (£94,000/€106,000) for breaking its curfew on all three days of weekend one. 

Festicket administrators have provided an update six months after the festival package company fell into trouble last year. 

There’s no question that the most-talked-about performance of Coachella weekend one was Frank Ocean’s festival-closing, wildly uneven set. But that’s unfortunate seeing as the desert gathering, often seen as a state-of-pop-music coming out party, had an enormous amount of interesting and often great stories and sets over the course of three days.

The biggest takeaway, trend-wise, is that international music has clearly cemented its place in the pop stratosphere; Friday night’s headliner Bad Bunny performed nearly his entire Friday headline set, including the intros and interstitials, in Spanish, while K-Pop superstars Blackpink blew away haters with a tightly choreographed, jaw-dropping Saturday night performance.

UPDATED: Artists spend months rehearsing for — and years dreaming about — headlining the Coachella festival, the biggest in North America. So the fact that Frank Ocean’s festival-closing performanc…

Live Nation and Mellen Events have introduced a new booking agency, promoter and artist management company, Cut Above Collective.

Elon Musk may tap the resources of his many companies to accelerate the work, but there is reason to be skeptical of the endeavor.

Grimes is set to present a Keynote on artificial intelligence at the International Music Summit in Ibiza later this month.

(CelebrityAccess) -- Music streaming platform Spotify announced that they are shutting down the music guessing game Heardle next month. The changes were announced in a popup message on the game's main page which announced that Heardle

The climate campaigning organisation Music Declares Emergency has launched a new initiative, Fan Club for Climate, “a community of music-lovers who care about the planet.” The fan club is a weekly newsletter containing “inspiring messages from musicians” and tips on making climate-positive decisions, but it’s also a network-building exercise.

AEG Presents has been tackling ticket scalpers for an upcoming performance from DJ Skrillex, by reclaiming tickets and reselling them to fans through the Fair AXS ticketing platform. 

The platform is AEG’s own fan verification system and requires fans to register in advance for tickets in order to discourage scalpers.

The Rocky Mountain Folks Festival has announced the full lineup for Folks Fest 2023, set for Aug. 11-13 at the Planet Bluegrass Ranch in Lyons, Colorado.

The lineup for the three-day festival includes Charley Crockett, Josh Ritter, Larkin Poe, The Secret Sisters, Tank and the Bangas and more.

Eric Clapton announced Monday that his recurring Crossroads Guitar Festival will take place in Los Angeles this fall, with a roster of 41 guest musicians or bands set to take the stage across two nights at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles Sept. 23-24.

Musicians due to perform one or both nights include Santana, the War on Drugs, the John Mayer Trio, ZZ Top, Sheryl Crow, Gary Clark Jr., H.E.R., Buddy Guy, Los Lobos, Vince Gill, Stephen Stills, Jimmy Vaughan, Robbie Robertson, the Del McCoury Band and Joe Bonamassa.

The inaugural American Music Honors awards show — a fundraiser for the Bruce Springsteen Archives and Center for American Music at Monmouth University — launched Saturday night without two very imp…

This A to Z music event planning checklist helps event planners and music promoters cover all bases when organising music events.

The brand new Winamp is finally here: It's ready to conquer Spotify. The iconic media player returns with a modern touch.

As governments around the world express concerns about TikTok, its rival Instagram Reels is set to get a series of new updates.