#134

Conference season 📆

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Happy 2023! New year same news, a certain ticketing company continues to get thrown under the bus. However, another makes things right, and Apple Fitness+ makes it easy to hit those resolutions.

Credit: @zachlanebryanZach Bryan Hates TicketmasterZach Bryan hates Ticketmaster so much that he named his recent live album, All My Homies Hate Ticketmaster. But that’s not all; the rising country star has vowed to keep tickets as low as possible and to not play at any TM venues. It’s not impossible, but it will certainly be increasingly challenging to avoid all Live Nation venues.

Sixthman  + NCL Make it OfficialSixthman Festivals at Sea and Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings have joined together to form a new “Experiences at Sea” brand, led by Anthony Diaz, CEO of Sixthman and SVP of Charters, Meetings, and Incentives for Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd. Together, they will host a record-breaking 13 back-to-back immersive cruise experiences in 2023.

Mystery Music Festival at SeaThe Norwegian Pearl is not just home to Sixthman events. The ship will also host FriendShip, a music festival with a surprise lineup, produced by Gary Richards, president of LiveStyle, aka EDM DJ Destructo. Fans will receive a lineup poster when they arrive on board the ship on February 27. 

AXS Goes Down UnderAEG’s ticketing platform, AXS, will expand into Australia next month, with plans to join Ticketmaster and TEG’s Ticketek as the 3rd “big actor” in the ticket market. AEG already operates several venues in the country as part of ASM Global and has merged its touring operations with Frontier Touring, one of the biggest event promoters in Australia and New Zealand.

Eventbrite Makes GoodIn other Aussie ticketing news, Eventbrite is offering refunds to those who purchased tickets to a fake New Year’s Eve yacht party in South Australia. The ticketing company is working with the police to investigate the people behind the scam.

Country Music Association has launched a Diversity & Inclusion Fellowship to provide BIPOC students with an immersive experience in the Country Music industry. The inaugural fellowship is in partnership with The University of Alabama, The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and Belmont University and will provide students an insider look into CMA’s Communications team in the weeks leading into the 50th anniversary of CMA Fest. The application is open now through Feb 24 at CMAworld.com/fellowship.

Calvin Harris’s First-Ever Virtual ConcertCalvin Harris will perform in an immersive concert experience on TikTok LIVE, Friday, January 13th at 3 PM ET in partnership with Wave. The concert, which will “take fans on a musical journey through Calvin's virtual universe, featuring audio-reactive visuals in a nature-inspired luminous world,” will be broadcast from Calvin Harris's TikTok account @calvinharris. A rebroadcast will take place on January 17th.

Apple Fitness+ and Queen BeyApple Fitness+ will be adding new artists to its Artist Spotlight this month, with seven new workouts featuring Beyonce music dropping yesterday (Monday, Jan 9th), followed by Foo Fighters workouts on the 16th and Bad Bunny on the 23rd. 

NHL Venue Metrics Measure Arena Sustainability Efforts

The National Hockey League is using data and analytics to measure the sustainability efforts of its teams’ venues through its new platform, NHL Venue Metrics. Omar Mitchell, VP of Sustainable Infrastructure and Growth Initiatives at the NHL, says, “We are using our technology and our platform to write the rules of how [the arenas] should be measuring their venue operations and reporting against those venue operations and providing insights into benchmarks of how they should be operating their venue.”

Events.com raises $100MEvents.com has secured a capital commitment of $100M from the Global Emerging Markets Global Yield Fund to accelerate its growth. The platform was on an acquisition spree, acquiring  Evensi, an event discovery platform, Brown Paper Tickets, and HelpGetSponsors.com, an event sponsorship technology company - all between August and October 2022 - and has plans to announce a 4th acquisition soon.

Country Music Foundation is hiring a full-time Social Media Manager to join its marketing team in Nashville, TN.

 

The Wellmont Theater in Montclair, NJ, is looking for a Box Office Manager who knows the Ticketmaster system like the back of their hand.

Fluent in both English and French? Join the On Location team at a “major international sporting event in France in 2024.”

Are you attending any industry conferences this year?

OR

Last Week's Results:

Lineup Announcements 

  • BeachLife Festival in Redondo Beach, CA will feature headliners The Black Keys, Gwen Stefani and The Black Crowes, May 5-7

  • BottleRock will celebrate its 10th Anniversary with Red Hot Chili Peppers, Post Malone, Lizzo, Duran Duran, Lil Nas X, and Smashing Pumpkins at the top of its bill May 26-28 in Napa Valley, CA 

  • Sunset Music Festival announced phase 1 of its lineup, including Slander,  Audien Hannah Wants, and Zomboy, with more to come. The Tampa, FL, festival takes place May 27-28.

Conference season is heating up. Here are a few taking place over the next two months. Let us know if you’re heading to any of these or if we’re missing any.

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 Check out this FREE timesheet template. Use it for your team or to keep track of your own time.

 Each week, Tony Knopp, founder & CEO of TicketManager, shares three things he learned in Saas, sports, tech, and live events on LinkedIn. Check out his master list of 135 things from 2022.

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