Thought Leaders Think Ahead: Alex Hodges, Pam Matthews, Brandon Goodman, Danny Rukasin, David Zedeck, Ali Hedrick (Part 4)

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Alex Hodges
CEO, Nederlander Concerts

In terms of scale and impact, how would you describe 2020 and the current crisis’ challenges and impact on your business?
2020 started robust for Nederlander Concerts.  However, two and a half months in, we went from over 191 concerts, and 92 special events confirmed to nothing.  Luckily, in just five months, we pivoted quickly and will end this year, presenting over 50 Drive-Ins.  Although our Drive-In model has proven successful for us, it is not financially sustainable and just a stop-gap solution.  Not to mention the challenges we face daily with ever-changing covid restrictions and ensuring the health and wellness of our staff. 
 
What strategies have you and your businesses implemented and/or are you considering implementing to address these challenges?
Early on in the Pandemic, we started curating live Instagram and Facebook events with emerging artists.  We also felt it was important to keep the community engaged and offered cooking lessons via our Kitchensync classes with City National Grove of Anaheim’s Executive Chef and local restaurant partners.
 
After much research, we were able to kick-off our Drive-In OC series at City National Grove of Anaheim, which luckily has proven to be extremely successful.  We have hosted over 50 events in Anaheim, plus taken our Drive-In model across the country, and will continue to produce these for the foreseeable future, and seek new markets to bring Drive-Ins too.  As of today, we have hosted 12,000 cars, grossing over $3 million.
 
In addition to the Drive-In’s, we are producing live stream events, either at those events or in our venues. We will continue to live stream events in the future and offer more content in the New Year.  We also created an app for our Drive-In shows for a contactless experience.  The mobile ordering helps eliminate the need to wait in concession lines, and we plan on expanding this service to other venues in the future.   
 
With vaccinations reportedly on the near horizon, better testing technology, accrediting organizations, industry sanitization and safety protocols being established, a new Presidential administration and more, when and how do you anticipate the industry coming back?  
 Hopefully, the elements of (a) vaccine, (b) other medications to improve recovery, (c) fewer false positives or confusions of diagnosis, (d) confidence and reality will all come together with the results leading to “opening up” of all sectors of the economy.  Personally, I believe groups or pods will be approved indoors, and capacities could reach up to 40% in venues.  Artists will probably make it work to have more live concerts and special events sooner rather than later.
 
What is “sooner”? While I would pray for April, more and more I am thinking 3rd Quarter or even late 3rd Quarter, yet this will vary per state guidelines or regions. Remember, cities need live concerts, sporting events, and conventions for the economy to bounce back.

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Pam Matthews
Executive Director, IEBA

In terms of scale and impact, how would you describe 2020 and the current crisis’ challenges and impact on your business?
Money lost in 2020 is gone forever.  This may be true of our peers and colleagues who have been furloughed or laid off.  Many will NOT return to the industry when the industry returns.  Some businesses will fail. Artist development will suffer.
 
What strategies have you and your businesses implemented and/or are you considering implementing to address these challenges?
The financial impact of shutting down concert touring & live performance is so pervasive that only government assistance can sustain some businesses.  But, with many state and city small business relief programs capping grants at $10,000 or $30,000, it is a Band-Aid on a bullet wound. Many businesses were forced to dip into their reserves when government assistance failed to cover even one month’s expenses.
 
With vaccinations reportedly on the near horizon, better testing technology, accrediting organizations, industry sanitization and safety protocols being established, a new Presidential administration, when and how do you anticipate the industry coming back?
Late June – August 2021 especially for outdoor events. Fingers crossed we can play indoors by Fall 2021
 

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Brandon Goodman & Danny Rukasin
Co-Founders, Best Friends Management

In terms of its scale and impact, how would you describe 2020 and the current crisis, its impact on your business and the biggest challenges.
Brandon Goodman: The COVID-19 pandemic has been unprecedented in every way.  The biggest impact in the music industry has been in the touring sector and the many people that it takes to put on a great live show have sadly been the most affected.  This includes everyone from the artist’s agents, promoters, production and sound crews, to the touring musicians, and even local personnel like venue staff, food services, and security.  From a management perspective, the biggest challenge has been trying to forecast when touring will be able to continue and plan accordingly.  We have been in a holding pattern for most of the year.  An artist’s live strategy isn’t solely important from a financial perspective for an artist, but also as an important development tool for gaining new fans and building an artist’s brand.

Danny Rukasin: Aside from the immense challenges Brandon mentions of how this pandemic affected an entire year’s worth of business and our amazing team and partners, the largest challenge is really the inability to know and predict when we can postpone dates for and/or build a full strategy around, and setting expectations accordingly.  When this started we and many in the industry were thinking (rather optimistically as we know now) that we could delay touring and in person events 6-9months, but that very quickly became unrealistic. We are now just planning very cautiously into 2021 and further out to 2022. 
 
What strategies have you and your businesses implemented and/or are you considering implementing to address these challenges?
Danny Rukasin: Focussing fan engagement and promotional activities to social media beyond what artists were already doing has been the biggest shift, but being mindful of the delicate balance of keeping everything feeling authentic to the artist, and relatable (knowing artists and audiences are in very similar situations of staying home and staying safe, so there is a great opportunity for that bond to continue and strengthen).  The situation also drives us to be extremely sensitive to the fact that everyone has been heavily impacted financially, so we are constantly managing purchase opportunities and how those are messaged.  Live Streaming has also been very helpful.  With Billie specifically, we found the opportunity (and great partners) to produce an incredible interactive live stream show for her that was at the standard of what she would want for herself and to make a very special experience for her fans.  Without touring, no single moment this year was as effective for her to bring to life her live show and the response was incredible.  It was also really helpful to bring our very valued touring team in help produce the show and keep them working.

Brandon Goodman: We have really leaned into developing deep social media strategies with a heavy focus on content creation.  Since artist’s cannot tour, or even do any in-person press or promo, we have had to rely solely on digital activations.  The one up-side is that this time has given time for some of our artists that normally tour consistently, to actually be able to focus on writing and recording new music.
 
With vaccinations reportedly on the near horizon, better testing technology, accrediting organizations, industry sanitization and safety protocols being established, a new Presidential administration, when and how do you anticipate the industry coming back?
Brandon Goodman: It’s hard to say.  We just want to make sure that once the time is right, that we are proceeding responsibly to keep our clients, their crews, and their fans safe.

Danny Rukasin: Now that we are close to the Vaccines being administered in different regions, we would hope they will be as efficacious as has been reported and even more so globally.  It may take time until we feel a sense of safety and standardization throughout all the territories that are important to a global touring and music campaign, but we are keeping in close contact with all our teams and ensuring we have contingency plans in place so the industry can come back stronger than ever.  Once that occurs, I believe the touring industry will be bigger and stronger than ever as fans have missed and crave the live music experience.. 

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David Zedeck
Co-Head of Music, UTA

In terms of its scale and impact, how would you describe 2020 and the current crisis, its impact on your business and the biggest challenge (or challenges) our industry faces?  
2020 saw the intersection of unprecedented & unimaginable events that were exponentially impactful on one another: Covid 19 and social unrest due to racial injustice.  In terms of dealing with racial injustice and how it effects our industry, we need to look internally and work to widen the pipeline in the earliest stages of recruitment & training programs.  Moving forward, we are continuing to build out teams that are more representative of society as a whole.  In regards to the pandemic, I am confident that once the vaccine strategy is implemented our business will begin to return and start to thrive again. Our hope is that everyone affected finds their path back to recovery – it might take some time, but since it’s nearly impossible to replace the communal experience of live we know it will come back in full swing.  Once the authorities allow for large scale live events, we’re firm believers that ticker buyers will again embrace concerts and festivals with a bigger appetite after being in “lockdown” for over a year. 

What strategies have you and your businesses implemented and/or are you considering implementing to address these challenges?
As the pandemic hit and offices closed, UTA leadership took very quick and essential steps to tackle the challenges that arose.  Our music group looked to pivot to ensure our clients used this new found time to look for non-touring projects and other creative opportunities to keep them engaged with their fans.  From virtual shows, to working with brands, writing books, acting, or developing podcasts, TV and film projects, our group worked with colleagues across the agency to keep our clients active.

We are thrilled to play a role  in the new projects our clients have taken on and we’re excited by the innovative ways they have stayed connected to their fans. The advent & acceptance of virtual events such as Post Malone’s Nirvana Tribute, Offset’s Oculus/Facebook Festival and Kaskade’s performance at the Grand Canyon are a few of the incredible streaming performances that our clients performed.   Additionally, our client Marc Rebillet announced the first- ever drive in theater tour, our electronic group worked to bring dance music to drive ins across the country – including the first drive -in electronic festival and our college and corporate/private group booked hundreds of virtual shows.

I’m also really proud of the work we have done internally in regards to diversity, equity and inclusion. We have put a number of initiatives into place within the agency- from unconscious bias training, to charitable contributions, to raising assistant salaries- UTA  is truly committed to building a more diverse and inclusive company.

With vaccinations reportedly on the near horizon, better testing technology, accrediting organizations, industry sanitization and safety protocols being established, a new Presidential administration, when and how do you anticipate the industry coming back?
There is an obvious and real desire for live to come back.  Not just from those who work in the industry, but from the fans as well. However, in order to get our business back to scale, there needs to be some uniformity regarding restrictions and protocols.  Artists need consistent guidelines in order to undertake a global tour so they are not faced with the challenge of canceling shows in markets that are operating under different guidelines.  Hopefully, once there is a timetable in place for wide distribution for the Covid 19 vaccine we will have a better idea of local constraints and protocols. We’ll get to see how the NBA & NHL handle arena attendance this season, and MLB in stadiums when their season starts this spring.  The protocols put in place for sports will pave the way for live touring to ramp up.   I’m optimistic that we’ll see a traditional summer touring & festival season, although it will most likely be a variation of what we’re used to and not exactly to what we’ve experienced in the past. We’re excited about working towards the inevitable return to live, even if gradual.

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Ali Hedrick
Co-Founder, Arrival Artists

In terms of scale and impact, how would you describe 2020 and the current crisis’ challenges and impact on your business?
 Obviously 2020 was devastating for most everyone in our business, profits are around 10% of what they once were if not lower. There are a few bright spots here and there, one being the deconsolidation of major agencies, but in general, there are a lot of great people currently without work. A challenge for everyone is going to be that once shows start up again, it likely won’t be a slow ramp up, it will be all systems go at the same time –  Essentially two years of touring being crammed into one year. Promoters and agents need to be planning for this in a time when most staff are furloughed, which will be challenging.
 
What strategies have you and your businesses implemented and/or are you considering implementing to address these challenges?
 At Arrival, we are working with our partners to better identify the fans of our artists and build those audiences – our hope is that this information will better enable us and our promoter partners to cut through the noise once business starts up again. We’re taking this time with less shows to build systems and have conversations with our managers on how to approach the return to touring and what tools we’ll need. Being organized and ready to pounce is key.
 
With vaccinations reportedly on the near horizon, better testing technology, accrediting organizations, industry sanitization and safety protocols being established, a new Presidential administration and more, when and how do you anticipate the industry coming back?
 It does feel like shows can return by early summer but I think it will depend a lot upon insurance companies and their willingness to ensure them. There is a desire on the part of fans to see a live show and on musicians to perform but I do worry about older audiences. I’m afraid they won’t be coming back in full force until early 2022 but I hope I’m wrong!