Live Music News: UK Venues, Black Promoters, Supremes eye Managers, AEG + Twilio, CSG
In the latest live music news, Music Venue Trust Annual Report 2025 shows a grassroots music sector that contributes over £500M/$675M USD annually to the UK economy. But it remains fragile. Venues operate on average profit margins of just 2.5%.
53% of the UK’s grassroots music venues showed no profit at all in 2025 and a loss of 6000 jobs. A similar NIVA Sate of Live survey showed 64% of U.S. venues were unprofitable in 2024.
Over the past year, 30 grassroots UK music venues permanently closed. Additionally, 175 UK towns & cities, home to an estimated 25 million people, no longer receive regular touring shows by professional artists.
MVT warns that this collapse in touring access is starving emerging artists of essential development opportunities.
More Live Music News
• Black Promoters Collective (BPC) earned multiple nominations at the 2026 Pollstar Awards. The nominations follow a standout year for the group of shows and tours with legendary artists, contemporary stars, and multi-generational audiences. This year’s Pollstar BPC nominations include:
- Hip-Hop Tour of the Year
- Trey Songz, Omarion & Bow Wow — “The Millennium Tour 2025”
- Nominations for R&B Tour of the Year
- Brandy & Monica — “The Boy Is Mine Tour”
- Gladys Knight, Chaka Khan, Patti LaBelle & Stephanie Mills — “The Queens! 4 Legends. 1 Stage.”
• The National Conference of Personal Managers (NCOPM) has filed an amicus curiae brief with the U.S. Supreme Court in the case Siegel v. Salazar, urging the Court to consider the significant national implications the dispute holds for personal managers. Furthermore, it has major implications for the entertainment industry as a whole.
The brief was filed in connection with Supreme Court docket No. 25-798, a case that challenges the constitutionality of the California Talent Agencies Act (TAA). It addresses issues affecting professional personal managers who represent artists, performers, and other creative professionals across the United States. The brief is available on the U.S. Supreme Court’s website.
• Major concert promoter AEG and Twilio, a customer engagement platform that drives real-time personalized experiences at concerts and events, have formed a strategic, multi-year partnership.
The deal will see Twilio’s customer engagement tech implemented by AEG’s Crypto.com Arena, LA Kings, and AXS . AEG’s global ticketing platform will use the tech to elevate customer communication from ticket purchase to in-venue.
• Concert Stuff Group (CSG), a provider of end-to-end concert and live event production services, has announced that Beau Alexander has joined the company as General Manager of Special Event Services.
Alexander brings more than 22 years of experience in the live entertainment industry. His career spans global touring, artist relations, technical leadership, and senior sales roles. His touring credits include extended tenures with Green Day (2005–2023), Tool (2006–2022), Kid Rock, Rob Zombie, My Chemical Romance, Hootie & the Blowfish, Darius Rucker, and others. Since 2023, he has served as Monitor Engineer for Morgan Wallen, a role he will continue alongside his responsibilities at CSG.
In his new role as General Manager of Special Event Services, Alexander will oversee operations, client relations, and strategic initiatives.
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Bruce Houghton is Founder & Editor of Hypebot, Senior Advisor at Bandsintown, a Berklee College Of Music professor and founder of Skyline Artists.
