Earlier this month, we highlighted Canadian Music Week as a place for serious music industry dealmaking. Now, CMW has confirmed one of the industry’s biggest and most successful dealmakers: Live Nation President & CEO Michael Rapino.
Just moments after securing an important keynote with longtime Taylor Swift manager Scott Borchetta, there’s another confirmed heavyweight. Canadian Music Week has just announced the inclusion of Live Nation chief executive Michael Rapino, undoubtedly one of the most powerful players in the music industry today.
Rapino will be keynote interviewing on April 20th at 4 pm at the Sheraton Toronto’s Osgoode Ballroom East. Interviewing will be George Stroumboulopolous.
+ Canadian Music Week: Where the Serious Music Industry Is Heading
Rapino has helmed Live Nation for more than a decade, and broadened the company substantially through a number of major initiatives. That includes the acquisition of Ticketmaster, EDM festival powerhouse Insomniac, and substantial expansion into merchandise and tech-related areas.
The sheer volume of this company is pretty impressive. As of 2016, Live Nation achieved sales of 480 million tickets across 26,000 venues — a year.
Now, the live space is taking the cake as the biggest music industry earner. That has crowned companies like Live Nation as winners, simply because you can’t pirate a live concert experience very easily. According to recent estimates, the broader live music space is slated to reach an astounding $21 billion in total revenues. Part of that success is coming from festivals, though mega-artists like Coldplay are still attracting stadium-sized crowds on their own.
Canadian Music Week officially kicks off in Toronto on April 18th (more details at cmw.net). And of course, Digital Music News will be on hand covering this, part of our broader, comprehensive CMW partnership.