Live Nation Posts Robust 2022 Year-End Results, Projects Blockbuster 2023; and Launches FAIR Ticketing Act

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Amazon Music has announced the launch of two new weekly flagship music series: the hip-hop-focused “Rotation Roundtable” and the Latin/pop culture show “La Semanal Live.” “Rotation Roundtable,” premiering March 15, comprises a hybrid Twitch livestream and 90-minute podcast experience inspired by Amazon Music’s “Rap Rotation” and “R&B Rotation” playlists. It is hosted by journalist and executive producer Speedy Morman, Power 105.1 host/ producer Nyla Symone, “On the Radar” creator Gabe P and veteran journalist Rob Markman. Each episode will feature a “Big Questions” segment meant to incite discourse about current events in hip-hop. The show will also consist of “Hot Takes,” guest interviews, and a debate segment fueled by chat participation.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Drake has announced dates for his 2023 “It’s All a Blur” tour presented by Cash App, Visa and Sprite. Produced by Live Nation, Drake and 21 Savage will be going on a 29-date arena run with stops including Chicago, Boston, New York, Miami, Los Angeles, and more before wrapping up in Glendale, AZ at Desert Diamond Arena on Tuesday, September 5. “It’s All a Blur” marks Drake’s return to touring since headlining Aubrey & the Three Migos Tour in 2018. In the last five years, Drake has released four albums, including his most recent studio album, “Her Loss,” in collaboration with 21 Savage. According to the announcement, the tour’s title is “a celebration of the last decade,” signifying its retrospective nature

2023 Oscars on Sunday.Will Smith didn’t return to violently clobber Chris Rock. He couldn’t.

 accepting the award alongside Marc Gustafson. He referred to his wife as «the love of his life» before also honoring his late parents and his children, whom he shares with Morgan. «Animation is cinema,» del Toro said. «Animation is ready to be taken to the next step.

Hollywood Reporter survey found that a majority would like to go back and change their 1977 votes for “Rocky” to “All the President’s Men.” And looking back at 1999, if they had to do it all over again, they’d give the gold to war epic “Saving Private Ryan” instead of the largely-forgotten “Shakespeare in Love.” But there have been a lot more recipients of Hollywood’s highest honor that have fallen out of favor — and sometimes in epic fashion. Here are 11 examples of Best Picture winners that probably wouldn’t win the award in 2023 — that is, if they were even green-lighted in the first place.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor The U.S. recorded-music industry reached an all-time high of $15.9 billion in 2022, marking the industry’s seventh consecutive year of growth. While overall streaming growth has been leveling off in recent years, with 92 million paid U.S. subscriptions, it’s clearly continuing to grow and fuel the market while the steady resurgence of vinyl continues. Collectively accounting for 84% of total revenues, streaming continued to be the largest driver with paid subscriptions, ad-supported services, digital and customized radio, social media platforms, digital fitness apps and others, according to the report. Paid subscriptions were up 7% to a record high revenue of $13.3 billion. Revenues grew 8% to $10.2 billion, passing the $10 billion mark for the first time.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor The demise of the iconic Tower Records retail chain in 2006 was in many ways the final nail in the coffin of the 20th century music business model, but as vinyl sales unexpectedly revived over the past decade, the company relaunched in 2020 as an online retailer. Since then, there have been many rumblings about of some kind of bricks-and-mortar Tower relaunch — there was a vaguely defined space on Sunset Blvd. in Hollywood, and rumors, stickers and posters have been seen around New York for many months. On Wednesday, it made sense: The company has unveiled Tower Labs, a new creative space in Brooklyn, New York. Located on Kent Avenue in Williamsburg, Tower Labs “is designed to engage and stimulate music fans with a range of offerings including live music events, album listening parties, and a new speakeasy style ‘vinyl drop’ window for limited edition music and merchandise releases,” according to the announcement.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor ASCAP, the only remaining not-for-profit performing rights organization in the U.S., announced that its 2022 annual revenue surpassed $1.5 billion for the first time, which fueled record royalty distributions to ASCAP’s songwriter, composer and music publisher members. Collections totaled $1.522 billion in 2022, an increase of $187 million or 14% over the previous year. According to the announcement, ASCAP’s strategic growth plan, launched in 2015, has resulted in a 6% compound annual growth rate for total revenues, and a 7% compound annual growth rate for total distributions to members.

Kelsea Ballerini is heading right back to the road for 18 more shows.From March 6 through July 1, the country star will travel all over the country as part of her ongoing ‘Heartfirst Tour.’The tour, which began in late 2022, had to be extended to the spring and summer due to overwhelming demand.Soon after, concerts began selling out.“WELL THIS ESCALATED QUICKLY,” Ballerini gushed on Instagram. “As if i couldn’t have been more excited to get back on the road…you’re selling these out already?! ok brb going to make the show extra special now.”This time around, she’ll be hitting the northeast when she stops into Atlantic City’s Etess Arena at Hard Rock Hotel and Casino on March 17.And if you need last-minute tickets, they’re surprisingly still available — even for the sold-out shows.Some can even be scooped up for as low as $55 before fees on Vivid Seats.Want to find the show closest to you? Or would you like to see Ballerini open for Kenny Chesney on his upcoming “I Go Back Tour?”Keep reading.

The Formula 1 season is officially here!

Love Island fans are convinced that all this year's contestants secretly hate each other. It comes after Sunday night's episode saw Ron Hall at the centre of gossiping and bickering. He accidently found himself in the middle of relationship drama between Casey O'Gorman and Rosie Seabrook after giving her advice that if they wanted to make things work on the outside then he would need to spend more time getting to know her and less time with the boys.

Paramount+ has shared some updates on their shows recently and we sadly can confirm that a beloved series is coming to an end.

KISS goodbye.Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley, Eric Singer and Tommy Thayer announced on Howard Stern that there are are just 21 shows and festival dates remaining on their long-running ‘End of the Road’ Tour.And, in a fitting tribute to their storied six-decade career, the band will play their final two shows in their home New York City at Madison Square Garden on Dec. 1 and Dec.

Adam Sandler will become the 24th recipient of the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor at Washington, D.C.’s Kennedy Center Concert Hall.The star-studded affair will feature appearances from key Sandler collaborators like Jennifer Aniston, Drew Barrymore, Chris Rock, Conan O’Brien and Steve Buscemi.Rather than relax after his major achievement, the “Hustle” star will continue to hustle.Sandler, 56, just announced that he’s extending his ongoing ‘Adam Sandler Live Tour’ with seven additional arena shows from April 13-21.“One more week of fun? Let’s do it!” the funnyman shared on Instagram.Over the course of the week of fun, Sandler will be stopping into Newark’s Prudential Center on April 13 and Buffalo’s KeyBank Center on April 16.And for those who can’t wait to see the “Billy Madison” and “Uncut Gems” star live this April, we’re happy to report you can scoop up tickets as early as today.Although inventory isn’t available on Ticketmaster until Friday, March 3, fans who want to ensure they have tickets ahead of time can purchase on sites like Vivid Seats before tickets are officially on sale.Vivid Seats is a secondary market ticketing platform, and prices may be higher or lower than face value, depending on demand.They have a 100% buyer guarantee that states your transaction will be safe and secure and will be delivered before the event.A complete calendar including all upcoming tour dates, venues and links to buy tickets can be found below.All shows are for ages 16 and up.As noted earlier, Sandler is being awarded with the prestigious Mark Twain Prize for American Humor.Best of all, tickets are available to the one-night-only celebration of all things Sandler.At the time of publication, tickets can be grabbed for $309

It's really happening!

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Amid last week’s announcement of record earnings of $16.7 billion in 2022, Live Nation came out with guns blazing about last month’s Senate hearing examining the ticketing industry — which was fiercely, if one-sidedly, critical of Live Nation’s Ticketmaster division — and took aim at the secondary ticketing market, which it identifies as the major problem facing the industry and concertgoers worldwide. As part of that counter-offensive, it announced what it calls the FAIR Ticketing act (full details of which can be found here), the basic tenets of which state: that “artists should decide resale rules,” which would be an effort to allow artists to take the lead in preventing exploitative prices on the secondary market; would “make it illegal to sell speculative tickets,” addressing scalpers’ habit of tricking fans into buying tickets that do not yet exist; would “expand the BOTS Act,” to combat the widespread use of ticket-buying bots on the secondary market; “crack down on resale sites that are safe havens for scalpers,” which would force secondary-market sites to police the activity on their platforms more aggressively; and “mandate all-in-pricing nationally,” which would address the processing and other fees that often are not revealed until very late in the sale process.

current interest in their operations within US politics in recent months, the company gave a statement that set out five key proposals to improve the regulation of the ticketing business.“If there’s any chance of improving ticketing for fans and artists, we all need to focus on the facts,” began Live Nation’s statement.“In the last few weeks alone,” it went on, “we’ve submitted more than 35 pages of information to provide greater context and transparency to policymakers on the realities of the industry.“These include the fact that this industry is more competitive than ever, Ticketmaster has actually lost market share since the 2010 merger, not gained it; and that venues set and keep most of the fees associated with tickets and are increasingly taking an ever-larger share.”Live Nation stressed that it supported an industry-wide move to “all-in pricing”, where ticketing platforms declare the price of a ticket including all and any fees upfront. This would arguably need to be achieved through regulation to ensure companies that voluntarily adopt all-in pricing aren’t disadvantaged by looking more expensive in advertising and search engine listings.President Joe Biden recently called on ticketing companies to limit such fees, often called “junk fees”, that are added to ticket prices which he said “can easily add hundreds of bucks to a family’s nights out”.The company also suggested the primary problem in the ticketing market was touts.

Thania Garcia Puerto Rican singer-songwriter Ozuna is calling 2023 his year. With a new album on the way, the release of a live album today, and an arena tour kicking off this summer — there’s a lot to chat about. “There are a lot of challenges, a lot of newness coming my way this year,” Ozuna tells Variety over the phone. “But I like a good challenge — and I’m at a point in my career where I have the energy to really give it my all. There’s a lot of goals I want to cross off.” Time is of the essence for the chart-topper who will embark on a new tour that will kick off in May, and continue on through the end of the summer in Europe. He’ll make stops in arenas across cities like Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Dallas and Miami — including European stops in Barcelona, Madrid, Paris and more — before wrapping on Aug. 5 in Torrevieja, Spain (see full schedule below). Tickets will go on sale on March 3, with more details to be announced soon.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor As part of the ongoing bipartan examination of alleged anticompetitive conduct by Ticketmaster, U.S. Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-Mn.) and Mike Lee (R-Ut.), Chair and Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Competition Policy, Antitrust, and Consumer Rights, sent evidence from their recent hearing to the Department of Justice and called on the DOJ to continue examining the company and its parent Live Nation. The bipartisan letter follows the recent Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on America’s ticketing market in the wake of the chaotic on-sale for Taylor Swift’s 2023 stadium tour. 

Jelly Roll is on a roll.First, the crossover country-rap star’s hit single “Son of a Sinner” hit number one on the Billboard Country Airplay chart in January 2023. Now, riding that wave of momentum, he’s announced his massive ‘Backyard Baptism Summer Tour’ that will send him to amphitheaters, county fairs, festivals and arenas all over North America from May through August.Midway through the run, Jelly Roll’s ‘Backyard Baptism’ will dip into Darien Center, NY’s Darien Lake Performing Arts Center on Aug.