Promoter 101 Podcast Episode Reviews

Promoter 101 # 215 - Live Nation's President of Global Touring Arthur Fogel

This episode of the Promoter 101 podcast features Arthur Fogel, Live Nation's President of Global Touring and and Chairman of Global Music. He has worked with several A-list artists in developing tours, including The Rolling Stones, Madonna, Lady Gaga, The Police, U2, David Bowie, and many more. I chose to listen to this episode because I wanted to learn more about the beginnings of Live Nation and how Fogel has helped it develop over the years.

Fogel and the hosts (Emporium Presents' Dan Steinberg and Works Entertainments' Luke Pierce) discuss the promotion business before and after Live Nation introduced global tour production. I learned that before Live Nation pioneered global concert production, the promoter business was very locally-based. Fogel mentions that it was run like mobs: it was rare for artists to play a city without working with the dominating local promoter of the area. Now, there are several options an artist can work with for their tours. Fogel and the team at Live Nation helped revolutionize that in their global, one-stop-shop approach to touring with artists, which had never been done before. Fogel mentions that one thing he is proud of being a part of at Live Nation is "building that local footprint together with the overall responsibility of taking an artist around the world, and helping to create that path with the Live Nation global footprint."

They also discuss how the level of production on tours are increasingly getting more complicated and more grandiose, which Fogel thinks is a good thing, though he says, "None of us make it easy on ourselves." He adds that the large-scale productions contribute to the creativity value: live concerts are "about the energy, the community, the wow, the sizzle, the excitement... You gotta blow people away. That's why they come back. That's how you build your reputation as a live performer." It's true—concerts are more about the live experience for the audience than anything else.

They also touched on the barriers to entry for new players in live entertainment. Fogel believes that it is Live Nation's responsibility to open up opportunities to smaller players who don't always get them. He mentions that there are some people at the company who are territorial or defensive about opening up their expertise and assets for people to learn, but he is the opposite: he wants to support those people who want to learn to help the next generation. With this, he also advises those learning to not pigeonhole themselves in one lane, and instead to learn about as much as possible and taking advantage of opportunities. He believes that someone who wants to be in the business would benefit from having a broader perspective and understanding of the industry. I agree; I think it's important for someone learning to learn about as many aspects as possible to have that broad perspective. He also applies this to his job as well: he doesn't pigeonhole himself into one genre, and he thinks that all promoters should venture their work into many genres.

Promoter 101 # 218 - Paradigm's Aaron Pinkus

I also listened to the Promoter 101 episode featuring Aaron Pinkus, an agent at Paradigm. With hosts Dan Steinberg from Emporium Presents and Ant Taylor from Lyte, Pinkus discusses his life as an agent, how he became an agent, people he's worked with, and his philosophies in the live music industry. This interview gave me an insider perspective on an intelligent, successful agent's life.

In the podcast, Pinkus goes in depth about his upbringing and his early years in the industry. He started at the bottom as a runner and did some interning as well, until he eventually worked his way to being crewmember on tour with John Mellencamp. He also lived with the Mellencamp family as their gofer/assistant, and John himself actually suggested that Pinkus become an agent. Pinkus decided to move to LA, and after a while, made it into the training program at William Morris Endeavor. He describes several agents he worked under before he was promoted to agent status. The path he took, which heavily involved the relationships he made with people, highlights the importance of developing professional relationships in one's professional development in the music industry. Through the people he had a good reputation with and his strong work ethic, he was able to move up in the ranks.

Additionally, Pinkus has a very relationship-based approach in his job as an agent. For instance, he has worked with some of his artists for over 20 years. He also goes into detail about the deals he makes with promoters, which are more like partnerships—he wants to invest in the relationship so that they'll do business again. He states, "The premise that you need to have leverage on someone [the promoter] in order to get them to do their job, which is something they love to do as well, doesn't make a lot of sense." Pinkus describes that he wants to work with promoters who understand that he wants to make deals that lower their risk, which will in turn cause them to put in more effort.

Another point Pinkus made is that he wants what is most fair for his clients as well as all other parties involved. They mention in the episode that Pinkus has a reputation of being an aggressive agent, but he also is seen as fair. He reminds everyone that those involved in a show are ultimately working for the artist, and they all want the artist to be successful. In turn they will also be successful. The deals he makes with promoters are based on figuring out the right price for the right percentage of tickets to make the most profit for everyone involved.

In conclusion, both Promoter 101 podcasts were extremely informative and interesting. I learned a great deal about Live Nation and being a smart agent in these two episodes, and the work ethic of both Arthur Fogel and Aaron Pinkus was also inspiring to me.

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Gwynne Stevenson is a senior at William Paterson University pursuing a BA in Popular Music with minors in Music & Entertainment Industry Studies and Classical Voice. She is involved as President of the university's student-run Music & Entertainment Organization, and is also a sister of Theta Phi Alpha Women's Fraternity. She is aspiring for a career in the live music industry upon graduation.