Sometimes we dismiss the familiar in search of the exotic. It was at this point I realized, knowing his background at Bill Graham Presents, as a manger of a baseball stadium, and as a production manager worldwide, I nor anyone else in the media ever asked him his story. Before I became executive director of…

In 2015, when I was the news editor at Pollstar magazine and ticketing issues were in the news, like they seem to be every few years, an Arizona paper interviewed Dr. Stephen Happel for his view on whatever that problem du jour was (Springsteen vs. scalpers). Happel was a champion of free markets who thought…

You think you know someone. We all have those people– not family or BFFs – that we assume we know. That person we see every year at the holiday party, that coworker we talk to in in the breakroom, that friendly volunteer that shows up at every church function. Yet we don’t really know them;…

As the pandemic made tectonic shifts in the music business, one thing that emerged was a new, significant nonprofit service called Backline. Founded in late 2019, and launched mere months before the lockdowns, the organization provides music industry professionals and their families with mental health and wellness resources. The service did not begin as a…

Immersive experiences are one new avenue of investment for promoters, with the most prominent being the Van Gogh exhibitions. There are several that are touring North America currently. Ian Noble of Metropolitan Entertainment is involved with the version known as Beyond Van Gogh, and NACPA talked to him about it.

Transparent Productions, the newest member of the North American Concert Promoters Association, continues to grow with shows coast to coast as well as festivals. Operating in the Christian music space, Transparent has emerged from the lockdowns through elbow grease, thinking outside the box and working in churches. Tim Taber learned the basics of promotion while…