Concert Promotion Centralization and the Artist Management Response: 1990s - 2010s

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).