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Abstract
Centralization in the concert promotion business affected not only the independent regional concert promoters who made up the bulk of the industry from 1965 to 1995, it also affected the artist and the artist manager. Prior to the centralization, the artist manager, the booking agent, and the promoter worked together to discover, nurture, and develop new acts, providing different perspectives while all sharing a common goal. During this early period the artist was able to establish baseline rights and prerogatives by which the concert promoters needed to abide. However, in the face of this industry centralization, there is potential those artist rights may erode or be lost due to confusion or uncertainty if the artist manager is not an informed negotiator when dealing with the concert promoter, venue owner, booking agent, and ticketing agent (who are very often one in the same).
Keywords: concert promotion, centralization, music industry, artist manager, booking agent, concert promoter, SFX, Clear Channel, Live Nation, Ticketmaster, StubHub
Introduction
Beginning in the mid-1990s the concert promotion industry underwent significant changes, disrupting the thirty-five year business model of individual, regional concert promoters in favor of centralized, national control-first by SFX, then by Clear Channel Communication, and then by Live Nation (rebranded as Live Nation Entertainment after its merger with Ticketmaster). The ten-year period of centralization between 1995 and 2005 brought significant and long-lasting changes to the financial relationship among the artist, the promoter, and the venue, with the artist arguably experiencing the greatest disadvantage under this altered business model. This paper explores the early history of the concert business, the period of centralization, and responses that artist managers can employ to maintain the artist's interests in the new era of centralization.
A Brief History of the Concert Industry: 1965-1995
Up until the mid-1960s live music concerts by popular artists were primarily promoted by the artists' record labels. The labels would package their most popular artists on multi-act bills, sending them out to tour regionally and nationally, booking whatever supper clubs, theaters, or civic halls happened to be available. While this business model was suitable when the primary goal was to increase record sales, it proved inadequate by the beginning of the psychedelic movement and the expanding youth market for live...