Beyoncé and Jay-Z

Beyoncé and Jay-Z

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The Louvre Offers Up Art Tour Based On The Carters' "Apes**t" Video

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The world-famous Paris museum launches a visitor's trail showcasing 17 of the works of art from Beyoncé and Jay-Z's latest music video
Nate Hertweck
GRAMMYs
Jul 6, 2018 - 5:58 pm

The Louvre museum in Paris was the quite conspicuous setting of The Carters' new music video for "Apres**t" from their surprise album, Everything is Love. Now, the project that posed GRAMMY winners Beyoncé and Jay-Z in front of some of the world's most recognizable art pieces has inspired a museum tour highlighting the works featured in the video.

The 90-minute self-guided tour will take visitors to 17 of the works of art featured in the "Apes**t" video, including the Greek marble piece “Nike of Samothrace,” Marie Benoist’s “Portrait Of A Negress,” and David’s “The Coronation Of Napoleon I And The Crowning Of The Empress Josephine,” according to AFP.

Classified by the museum as a "visitor's trail," fans can peruse the tour online without traveling to the City of Lights, though as is the case with many great works of art, it's a very different experience in person.

The superstar couple's surprise single, video and album confirmed long-running rumors of a collaboration project. Everything Is Love and the "Apes**t" video arrived June 16 in the midst of the pair's On The Run II tour. Beyoncé introduced the clip for the first time during a show in London, sending the crowd into a frenzy and igniting excitement from fans of both artists worldwide.

For tickets to catch the On The Run II tour, visit Ticketmaster. For more information on visiting the Lourve, visit the museum's website.

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Ed Sheeran

Ed Sheeran

Photo: Kevin Mazur/Getty Images

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Report: Ticket Sales For Tours Thrived In 2018's Digital Music Environment

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Live music takes on richer meaning as fans relate to their favorite artists through streaming and social media
Philip Merrill
GRAMMYs
Dec 18, 2018 - 1:29 pm

Digital music and the internet have changed everything, but 2018's thriving concerts and music events ticketing demonstrates how it's paying off in the real world, too, especially for top touring acts such as Beyoncé, Jay-Z, Ed Sheeran, and Taylor Swift. The top 25 concert tours reported over $3 billion in sales, up $500 million compared to 2017, an increase of 20 percent.

"We had the perfect storm with the perfect artists," promoter Louis Messina told Billboard. His 2018 success stories included $266 million from the U.S. dates for the Reputation Stadium Tour, making Taylor Swift the artist with the top U.S. annual ticket grosses ever. International dates and sales added to the bottom line's demonstration that the internet and its digital connections have not replaced the live music experience — they've given it a new context.

Jay-Z scored another first as his 4:44 Tour came in at 25 with a $45 million take from 30 shows while The Carters' On The Run II Tour came in at No. 3, taking in $254 million from 48 dates. That's the first time ever that a single artist appeared in a year's top 25 tours twice.

"Because of the ways tickets are priced and distributed," said Live Nation Senior VP Touring Omar Al-Joulani, "a lot of veteran artists are seeing some of the highest grosses of their careers."

One key is the science of analytics and how digital data has informed what cities artists decide to perform in, what top prices can be charged for seats, and even low-priced ticket sales for some appearances. Instead of looking for fast sell-outs, this marketing science is described as a "steady as she goes" approach.

"Streaming music and video is driving all demand right now," said Marc Geiger, head of music at William Morris Endeavor. He's had a front-row seat for the digital revolution, which has come a long way since he co-founded Lollapalooza and the web-based ARTISTdirect. "Anyone can listen to anything at any time, anywhere, and that has allowed more fans to have relationships with artists," he said.

Billboard details how leaders like AEG and Live Nation, and its Ticketmaster Verified Fan program, don't settle for playing catch-up while digital keeps changing the rules. Festivals and genre-specific events are using the same techniques to give fans a reason to go live in a big way. Looking ahead at 2019, it's clear the online and in-person music experiences can not only coexist, but they help stoke each other's flame.

Find Out Who Helmed The Top Grossing Tours Of 2018

Imogen Heap

Imogen Heap

Photo: Roy Rochlin/Getty Images

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Inside Imogen Heap's Interactive 'Creative Passport' Project & Mycelia World Tour

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The GRAMMY-winning artist and tech innovator brings together live concerts, interactive workshops and tech talks to nine cities across North America
Nate Hertweck
GRAMMYs
Dec 10, 2018 - 5:16 pm

Fans of multi-instrumentalist songwriter/producer and multi-media artist Imogen Heap have learned to expect the unexpected from their hero. Never one to disappoint creatively, Heap's latest endeavor is also one of her most ambitious.

The GRAMMY winner has announced a nine-city North American leg of her Mycelia World Tour, complete with the launch of a new project, 'Creative Passport,' which integrates concerts, workshops and discussions to push the typical limits of what a live tour can mean.

The continuation of her Mycelia World Tour follows successful stints across Europe during 2018 and will make stops in major U.S. cities between April and June 2019, including Miami, New York, Chicago, Toronto, Seattle and San Francisco. The tour is named after Heap's research and development hub aimed at cultivating a fairer payment system for artists by establishing a music maker database.

Billed in a statement from Heap as "promoting a fair and flourishing future for the Music Industry," her 'Creative Passport' project is geared toward, "realising a vision of the future which sees music makers connected through a verified and decentralised ecosystem, promoting artist-led, fair and sustainable operating practices."

The slate of events for each tour stop includes some or all of several elements, including solo concerts from Heap as well as reunited duo appearances with Guy Sigsworth as electronic duo Frou Frou for the first time since 2003.

'Creative Passport' also offers workshops with local music makers, technologists and industry influencers, workshops for families where children will get to build and code their own MIni.MU gloves (Heap's proprietary electronic instrument of the future) and talks given by Heap on "technologies which are positively shaping the future of the music ecosystem, building better business and audience relations with music makers."

“For years now we’ve been complaining about the state of the music industry and how it has been held back by old ways of thinking, negatively impacting music makers–a major pain point being that we are the first to put in any of the work, and the last to see any financial reward or even payment," explains Heap. "Through Mycelia and its ‘Creative Passport,’ as music makers we now have no excuse but to put our best foot forward and become open for business, decentralising the ecosystem so that it will ultimately benefit everyone. I am excited to be going on the road to bring this to life, in addition to showcasing other new technologies which will add to transforming the music industry into a fair, flourishing and vibrant place”.

Heap released her debut album, iMegaphone, back in 1998 and has spent the past two decades surprising her fans with her classically trained yet wildly innovative interpolations of pop music. While her work has always pushed the boundaries between music and visual media, her sounds reached her widest audience yet as a producer on Taylor Swift's GRAMMY-winning album 1989, which earned Heap her second career GRAMMY Award.

Tickets for Heap's North American dates of her Mycelia World Tour go on-sale to the general public on Friday, Dec. 14 at 10:00 a.m. For full details, visit her website.

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Usher

Usher

Photo: Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Global Citizen Festival

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Usher, Chris Martin & More Honor Nelson Mandela At Global Citizen Festival

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A stellar lineup of GRAMMY-winning artists went all out at the special event honoring the late South African leader's legacy
Ana Yglesias
GRAMMYs
Dec 3, 2018 - 4:26 pm

With a lineup including GRAMMY-winners Usher, Pharrell, Beyoncé, Jay-Z, Ed Sheeran, Chris Martin, Kacey Musgraves and Eddie Vedder, one could only expect to be wowed. That was definitely the case for Global Citizen Festival: Mandela 100, held Dec. 2 in South Africa to honor the late iconic activist Nelson Mandela's legacy 100 years after his birth. The celebratory event was hosted by South African comedian Trevor Noah and featured powerful speeches from the likes of Oprah Winfrey plus plenty of breathtaking performances from the aforementioned big-name musicians as well as several rising African artists, including South African DJ/producer—and underground house music favorite—Black Coffee and Nigerian singer and producer—and recent Drake collaborator—Wizkid.

If you missed the event's livestream on YouTube yesterday, you're in luck. The majority of the event (although only a small part of Jay-Z and Beyoncé's epic closing) is available online, along with several clips of the speeches and performances, including Usher's mashup of his "Without You," a 2011 collab from GRAMMY-winning DJ/producer David Guetta, with Black Coffee's 2001 dance-club jam "We Dance Again," joined on-stage by Black Coffee himself. As reported by Billboard, Usher, alongside the South African Indigenous Dance Academy, performed a traditional South African style of dance, the Gwara Gwara. Other stars such as Childish Gambino and Rihanna have showcased this dance over past year, the latter star showing off her moves on none other than the 60th GRAMMY Awards stage, during her performance of "Wild Thoughts."

Usher talked to the significance of the collaboration with Black Coffee, IDA and Global Citizen:

"In the process of working on music in L.A., we started talking about what we could do at the festival to celebrate the culture, to make everyone there feel like they saw something special. So we developed this and we reached out to IDA to come onstage and perform with us." Usher told Billboard. "You see how artists can fulfill their duty to give back. The celebrity aspect is a treat for their time, for people who are advocating for these goals."

The R&B megastar also pointed to the exciting prospect of releasing material with Black Coffee: "We're working on music for the future. The song we worked on so far is incredible." 

The 10-hour event also included an above-and-beyond almost-90-minute concert from the ultimate power couple Beyoncé and Jay-Z similar to their global stadium-filling On the Run II Tour, complete with a closing act of their tear-jerking duet rendition of "Young Forever." Their set also brought some of the evenings other special guests onstage, including Ed Sheeran and Pharrell.

"I can feel so much light and beauty in here," said Beyoncé during their performance.

In addition to joining the Carters onstage, Pharrell also had Coldplay frontman Chris Martin join him to perform their new song "E-Lo." The song was recently released as part of the four-song Global Citizen Ep 1, under Coldplay's apparent new pseudonym, or perhaps side-project, Los Unidades. Usher and Martin also joined Pharrell to back him as he sang his joyful GRAMMY-winning hit "Happy."

Other standout performances included Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder singing his group's classic "Better Man" backed by South Africa's powerful GRAMMY-winning Soweto Gospel Choir. Nigerian singer and producer Wizkid, who has collaborated with Drake on several tracks including "Come Closer," also performed several songs, including a mashup with the Choir.

Global Citizen reports the event led to 5.6 million social media actions by online participants around the world. Participants with enough points were entered in a lottery to win tickets to the event. In all, the event helped raise over $7 billion including commitments from organizations such as the World Bank, all towards helping "fulfill Mandela's vision of ending extreme poverty."

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Jed Hilly of the Americana Music Association

Jed Hilly

Photo: Erika Goldring/Getty Images

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Americana Tour Blueprint Provides Musicians Valuable Booking & Routing Resource

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The new online tool from the Americana Music Association gives artist members info for roots music-friendly opportunities in over 100 markets
Nate Hertweck
GRAMMYs
Nov 1, 2018 - 2:10 pm

Touring is tough. For all the joy and rewards of playing your music in a new town each night, there are so many risks and challenges, starting with booking. Now, thanks to the Americana Music Association, a new tool called Americana Tour Blueprint makes routing a tour easier by connecting artists with venues in cities with a roots music-friendly support network of radio stations, retailers, and local press.

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The brand new online tool, which was conceived two years ago, allows members of the organization not only to map out a tour route based on information about over 100 markets on the circuit, but to request a booking at the 20 or so venues that have agreed to receive pitches from Americana Music Association artists.

The locations covered by the blueprint stretches through the area roughly surrounding the Interstate 95 corridor, including northeaster cities like Boston and New York all the way down to Miami. There's also a path through Interstate 65 that leads through markets like Atlanta, Asheville, N.C. and more. The organization hopes this project will go a long way toward fostering the artists of today and tomorrow in the genre it champions.

"As an artist advocacy group, our mission is to support the authentic voice of American roots music," says Americana Music Association Executive Director Jed Hilly. "But as a trade association, we are mindful of working with the industry to not only support legends but also to work for the next generation of rising stars."

To commemorate the launch of the new tool, the organization is walking the walk, presenting the inaugural 2019 tour featuring Caitlin Canty and Oshima Brothers, the first artists to use the new resource to book their tour, which kicks off Jan. 4 at New York City's Rockwood Music Hall.

Americana is inherently a live performance-oriented music genre, known for the use of acoustic instruments, vocal harmonies and road-themed lyrical content. For a style so steeped in tradition, this innovative new tool promises to support roots musicians and free up more of their time to do what they should be doing, making music. See you on tour!

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