Touring Power Players: Billboard’s 2026 List Revealed

As the live sector evolves with the times, Billboard’s list of executives — led by MSG Entertainment’s Josephine Vaccarello — highlights the teams around artists devising new ways to serve and entertain audiences.

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Promoters

AEG International

Alex Hill
President/CEO
Adam Wilkes
President/CEO of AEG Presents Europe and Asia-Pacific, AEG Presents
John Langford
President of Asia-Pacific
Emma Bownes
Senior vp of programming
Simon Jones
Senior vp of global touring international, AEG Presents

AEG Presents

Jay Marciano
Chairman/CEO
Rich Schaefer
President of global touring
Debra Rathwell
Executive vp of global touring
Michael Harrison
Angie Rho
Kelly Stelbasky
Senior vps of global touring

All Things Go

Will Suter
Stephen Vallimarescu
Co-founders

Another Planet Entertainment

Sherry Wasserman
Co-founder/president
Gregg Perloff
CEO
Allen Scott
President of concerts and festivals; co-founder/producer of Outside Lands

Bizarro Live Entertainment

Alfredo Alonso
Founder, Bizarro Chile; president, Live Nation Peru
Daniel Merino
Entertainment director, Bizarro Chile; entertainment director, Live Nation Peru

Black Promoters Collective

Gary Guidry
Partner/CEO
Shelby Joyner
Partner/president
Troy Brown
Partner/chief marketing officer
William “Bill” Ingram
Partner/CFO
Shahida Mausi
Partner/chief strategy officer/senior vp

Breakaway

Adam Lynn
Co-founder/CEO
Zach Ruben
Co-founder

C3 Presents

Charles Attal
Charlie Walker
Partners
Amy Corbin
Promoter; South region president, U.S. Concerts, Live Nation
Huston Powell
Promoter

Cárdenas Marketing Network

Henry Cárdenas
CEO
Alex Cárdenas
Carolina Daza
Senior vps of live entertainment

City Parks Foundation SummerStage

Erika Elliott
Executive artistic director

This year, SummerStage marked a monumental accomplishment — 40 years providing free concerts for New Yorkers — with a similarly monumental season.

“We were lucky enough to get some really amazing funders who gifted us with additional resources to celebrate the 40th,” executive artistic director Erika Elliott says. “It gave us a chance to look back and also look forward.”

That included shows with “important cultural icons — and distinctly New York people” including La India, Angélique Kidjo and Laurie Anderson, “bookings that felt really intentional.” This season’s programming spoke to the diversity of the five boroughs. “No other festival is doing a Taiwanese day, or a dedicated C-pop [Chinese pop] day, or a day fully focused on ­Morocco,” she says.

Another major moment came when the next-gen jam band Goose did a surprise pop-up show in June in Central Park the night after two Madison Square Garden gigs. Says Elliott: “For me, that was a big coup this year — to have the relationship and the reputation that a band at that level says, ‘Hey, could we do a show with you?’ ”

Elliott, a 22-year SummerStage veteran who has served as its executive artistic director since 2015, admits that because the organization doesn’t depend on ticket sales, she’s in an “enviable position” — but she points out the “competitive landscape” for nonprofits. “Our budget has always increased a little bit,” she says, “but I don’t know that it’s always able to keep up with the increase in artists’ fees.”

Additionally, climate change continues to throw curveballs at the outdoor festival. “We were not able to present Mavis Staples because of the smoke and the air quality. That’s a trend that never used to happen,” Elliott says of the R&B legend’s scuttled July show. “We are working on updating our process every year and always learning more. We look for guidance from the city when possible.”

Changes in the political climate — such as partial travel bans on countries like Nigeria — have also created challenges. “It changes our ability to book artists who deserve to play,” she says. “It’s really unfortunate … to not let an artist come and perform in this country, especially artists who have performed in this country before. I just don’t see how that builds bridges or does anything positive.”

Still, Elliott — a self-described “optimist” — remains hopeful for SummerStage’s future. “I’ve been here so long because it’s a dream job, to be able to bring music and artists and communities together, for free, across all five boroughs,” she says. “We have a legacy to build on for our 80th ­[anniversary].” —JOE LYNCH

Collectiv Presents

Michael Berg
Partner/talent buyer

Concerts West

John Meglen
President/co-CEO
Paul Gongaware
Co-CEO

Country Thunder Music Festivals

Troy Vollhoffer
President/CEO; president/CEO, Premier Global Production

Danny Wimmer Presents

Danny Wimmer
Founder

Dayglo Presents

Peter Shapiro
Founder

DF Entertainment

Diego Finkelstein
Founder

Do LaB

Jesse Flemming
Co-founder

Fenix Entertainment

Marcelo Figoli
Owner/CEO

Framework

Kobi Danan
Founder

Frontier Touring

Dion Brant
CEO
Susan Heymann
COO

Goldenvoice

Paul Tollett
President
Melissa Ormond
COO
Stacy Vee
Jenn Yacoubian
Executive vps

Iglesias Entertainment

Jorge Iglesias
Founder/CEO

Insomniac

Pasquale Rotella
Founder

La Familia Presenta

Aaron Ampudia
Christopher Den Uijl
Co-founders

Live Nation

Michael Rapino
President/CEO
Arthur Fogel
Chairman of global music/president of global touring
Omar Al-joulani
President of touring
Bob Roux
President of U.S. concerts
Jared Braverman
Hans Schafer
Senior vps of global touring
Colin Lewis
Global tour promoter

Live Nation International

Paul Antonio
President, EMEA/Asia, Live Nation
Dennis Argenzia
President of touring, Asia, Live Nation
Michael Coppel
Chairman of Live Nation Australia and New Zealand
Denis Desmond
Chairman, U.K. and Ireland, Live Nation
Bruce Moran
Executive chairman of Latin America Touring, Live Nation
Caitlin Miller
Senior vp of global touring, EMEA/APAC, Live Nation Entertainment

Live Nation Urban

Shawn Gee
President
Mari Davies
Vp of talent and booking
Malcolm Gray
Vp of marketing

Loud And Live

Nelson Albareda
CEO

Marshall Arts

Barrie Marshall
Chairman/managing director

Messina Touring

Louis Messina
Founder/CEO
Mike Dugan
President
Haley McCollister
President, Nashville
Kate DesEnfants McMahon
Rome McMahon
Executive vps

Move Concerts

Phil Rodriguez
CEO
Alejandro Pabón
Partner; head of operations, Rimas Nation

OCESA

Alejandro Soberón
Founder/CEO
Leizer Guss
Festivals director
Guillermo Parra
International events director

Turning the extraordinary demand for live music in Mexico into unforgettable fan experiences has been OCESA’s greatest recent achievement, according to Guillermo Parra, international events director for the promoter, which finished at No. 3 on Billboard Boxscore’s 2026 midyear promoters chart with $559.5 million grossed, behind only Live Nation and AEG.

“Shakira’s 13 sold-out shows and Bad Bunny’s eight-date run at Estadio GNP Seguros are powerful examples, alongside major engagements by BTS, The ­Weeknd and AC/DC,” Parra says. “What makes this meaningful is the ability to deliver consistently at that scale. It reflects years of building trust with artists, developing specialized teams and investing in venues.”

On her Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran world tour, Shakira made history at the Mexico City stadium (formerly known as Foro Sol), becoming the artist with the most ­performances in a single tour at the iconic venue, where she sold 721,000 tickets across 13 shows, according to Billboard Boxscore. And only Madrid hosted more dates for Bad Bunny’s colossal DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS world tour; the global star’s eight sold-out shows at the stadium in December 2025 brought in $88 million from 518,000 tickets sold.

“These results reinforce Mexico’s importance to global touring, while demonstrating that Latin artists can drive some of the world’s most significant live-music moments,” Parra adds.

His favorite musical moment of the past year-and-a-half: Oasis’ return to Mexico. “There was an extraordinary sense of anticipation around those two nights at Estadio GNP Seguros, and hearing the crowd sing those songs together was unforgettable,” he recalls. “For longtime fans, it was a reunion with music that had shaped their lives; for younger fans, it was their first opportunity to experience the band live.”

When asked about the biggest challenges facing the Latin music community, Parra says global touring infrastructure for live music must keep pace with the worldwide growth of Latin artists. “The audience is there,” he notes, “but reaching more fans requires suitable venues, experienced local teams and touring routes that make economic sense, particularly beyond the largest cities.”

For Parra, it is imperative to create more opportunities for emerging artists to develop sustainable live careers, and he believes that festivals, opening slots and venues of different sizes all play a role: “The opportunity is to translate Latin music’s global visibility into a stronger touring ecosystem, where more artists can grow and more communities can participate.” —SIGAL RATNER-ARIAS

Outback Presents

Mike Smardak
Founder/co-CEO

Rolling Loud

Matt Zingler
Co-founder/CEO; founder/CEO, Motion Music
Tariq Cherif
Co-founder; founder, TC Music

SJM Concerts

Simon Moran
CEO

SPKRBX

Berto Solorio
CEO; co-founder/executive producer, The Lyrical Lemonade Summer Smash Festival

Untitled Group

Nicholas Greco
Co-founder/managing partner

Vans Warped Tour

Kevin Lyman
Founder

Agencies

CAA

Lucy Dickins
Rob Light
Managing directors
Emma Banks
Darryl Eaton
Rick Roskin
Co-heads of global touring

With a roster that includes top-tier pop talent such as Ariana Grande, Harry Styles, Lady Gaga, The Weeknd, Dua Lipa and Charli xcx, CAA remains a juggernaut at the stadium and arena levels.

But that dominance comes with its own challenges: These days, CAA is in some cases booking four years out, says co-head of global touring Darryl Eaton, with agents at times looking as far ahead as 2030.

“We’re looking at everything holistically to figure out the entire global footprint in one fell swoop,” Eaton says.

And while this has been an exceptional year for CAA’s established clients — from Styles’ 30-date Madison Square Garden residency to The Weeknd’s After Hours Til Dawn outing becoming the third tour ever to surpass $1 billion grossed — the agency is also shepherding newer headliners like Sabrina Carpenter, Tate McRae, Doja Cat and Gracie Abrams to some of the world’s biggest stages.

Among CAA’s new stadium talents is client Rüfüs Du Sol (represented by the agency everywhere other than Europe). When the Australian dance trio put up the on-sale for its Inhale / Exhale tour in October 2024, the team worked to have tickets for the entire run — no matter where a date was booked — ready to go at once.

“We announced Australia, South America, North America and Europe all at the same time, and we put it on sale all at the same time,” Eaton says, “which was really hard across time zones. We were in war rooms, putting shows up in all these different territories over the course of 48 hours.”

The strategy worked: The tour, which ran from March 2025 through September 2026, became not only the first dance trek to gross more than $100 million, but also the first to surpass $150 million, ultimately becoming the genre’s highest-grossing and best-selling tour ever, with $158 million earned from 1.7 million tickets sold, according to Billboard Boxscore.

The tour is emblematic of the way that territories beyond North America — especially in Latin America, Asia and the Middle East — have become priorities for bookers. “The world’s just so much smaller and music is global,” Eaton says. “Our perspective in touring has gotten global as well.” —ARIEL KING

Cara Lewis Group

Cara Lewis
Founder/CEO

Day After Day Productions

Seth Shomes
Founder/CEO

Ground Control Touring

John Chavez
Senior vp

High Road Touring

Frank Riley
Agent

Independent Artist Group

Dennis Arfa
Chairman, music division
Marsha Vlasic
Vice-chair, music division
Jarred Arfa
Executive vp/head of global music
Nick Storch
Executive vp/head of global artist development

Mac Agency

Andrew Lieber
CEO

The Neal Agency

Austin Neal
Founder/CEO
Adi Sharma
Co-head
Brian Carothers
Agent

Paladin Artists

Steve Martin
Andy Somers
Founders/principals
Bruce Solar
Co-founder/principal
Rick Levy
CEO

Primary Talent International

Matt Bates
Managing partner/CEO

ROAM

Ethan Berlin
Alex Bruford
Karl Morse
Skully Sullivan-Kaplan
Agents/partners

Sound Talent Group

Beth Keith
Partner/manager/agent

TBA Agency

Marshall Betts
Avery McTaggart
Managing partners/agents
Amy Davidman
Founding partner/agent
Josh Mulder
Director of A&R/agent

When TBA Agency took shape in 2020 amid the pandemic shutdown, there was no live music to speak of. But steered by veteran agents Avery McTaggart (managing partner), Marshall Betts (managing partner) and Amy Davidman (founding partner) — all furloughed from Paradigm that spring shortly after concerts were paused — the company hit the ground running when stages reopened. It hasn’t looked back since.

“The live show is paramount,” says director of A&R and agent Josh Mulder, who represents Remi Wolf, Faye Webster and Underscores. “It has to hit. It has to really be able to convert people. In such a crowded time and industry landscape, live is king — or queen.”

Fortunately, TBA has a plethora of artists renowned for their onstage prowess: Ethel Cain, whose just-wrapped headlining tour included two legs each in North America and Europe and a plum Coachella slot; Jungle, which the agency says sold 16,000 tickets across two nights at The Greek Theatre in Berkeley, Calif.; Big Thief, which played a two-hour-plus sold-out show at Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Morrison, Colo., in October; Webster, who pulled off an international tour with a 40-piece orchestra in 2025; and Wolf, who recently announced a 2027 headlining run including a sold-out date at New York’s Radio City Music Hall.

“I’m so curious what she’s going to do next,” says Mulder of Wolf, who improbably covered Tom Cochrane’s “Life Is a Highway” on her last tour. “I’ve been doing this for about 16 years, and every single show continues to blow me away.”

One rising TBA star is Underscores, the hyperpop artist who has broken out with her 2026 album, U, and landed the support slot on Charli xcx’s arena tour this fall. But don’t call it an overnight success — like many of TBA’s clients (and staff), Underscores has put in the time. “When I started working with Underscores six years ago, that was a very different sound from what was happening. I’m so thrilled she’s finally getting the shine she deserves,” Mulder says.

Of the challenges facing the touring industry, Mulder points not only to rising costs but staffing shortages: “With the amount of touring going out on the road, finding great-quality people is always a hurdle. We try to strike a balance of hitting as many markets as we can that are significant and important to the trajectory of our clients, without keeping them out too long.”

Even so, he sums up today’s touring industry as “exciting,” particularly for niche genres “that are finally getting a stage to grow and be seen” across the country. “People are responding. That gives everyone a massive amount of hope that fans are still interested in pioneering sounds that push boundaries, and that creates more space for other artists to shine.” -J.L.

THE·TEAM

Lee Anderson
Kevin Shivers
Co-presidents
Marty Diamond
Jackie Nalpant
Brent Smith
Executive vps/managing executives

UTA

Sam Kirby Yoh
David Zedeck
Partners/co-heads of global music
Ken Fermaglich
Mike G
Jbeau Lewis
Partners/agents

Over the last year, marquee UTA clients such as Bad Bunny and Guns N’ Roses have staged major global tours as the agency continues to grow its international business.

“There are more places to play around the world, more markets are opening, cities and private corporations are opening more theaters around the world,” says David Zedeck, UTA partner and co-head of global music. “Music has never been more accessible.”

As the expansion continues, Zedeck says local promoters — who know how to best navigate their markets and assess regional demand — are essential.

“It’s making sure your ticket price is right, it’s making sure you’re on the right day of the week at the right venue,” he explains. “We forget that, while it’s a global business, tickets are sold locally.”

And as global genres including Latin and K-pop become some of the industry’s top earners, UTA — where Zedeck says many agents are “genre-agnostic” — is well-positioned. Bad Bunny’s DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FoTOS stadium tour grossed $472.2 million from 3.1 million tickets sold, according to Billboard Boxscore; he leads a Latin roster that also boasts ­Karol G, Rosalía, Rauw Alejandro, Romeo Santos and Rawayana.

UTA’s hip-hop and R&B business also had a big year, with Cardi B’s hotly anticipated Little Miss Drama Tour — the New York rapper’s first proper tour — grossing more than $70 million from 453,000 tickets sold, and Don Toliver’s 50-date North American arena tour grossing over $60 million from 670,000 tickets (the ascendant rapper embarked on a European leg in late October). The R&B Tour, Usher’s current joint outing with UTA client Chris Brown, has sold 1.5 million tickets and grossed $284.7 million across 36 shows.

For Zedeck, the most significant trend from the last year may be the growing intersection of sports and music — and not just because Bad Bunny headlined the 2026 Super Bowl halftime show. The FIFA World Cup and NHL have also started bringing in major talent — and Zedeck’s own client, the Jonas Brothers, headlined an NFL halftime show in September for the league’s first-ever regular season game in Australia, which took place at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

Says Zedeck: “Those are big, seminal moments for artists.” —A.K.

WME

Kirk Sommer
Global head of music
Rob Markus
Head of international
Becky Gardenhire
Joey Lee
Jay Williams
Co-heads/senior partners, Nashville

Venue Groups

16 On Center

Bruce Finkelman
Founder/managing partner, 16 On Center Chicago

Brooklyn Sports & Entertainment

Laurie Jacoby
Chief entertainment officer/executive vp

Over the last several years, residency-style touring has become far more common — and as fuel prices rise and the economics become more difficult to manage, venues expect the trend to continue. Barclays Center, which hosted Ariana Grande for five nights in July, is no exception. The Brooklyn arena will host an even longer stay for a pop superstar next year, when Olivia Rodrigo will play 10 shows at the venue Feb. 11-28.

“We’ve been able to extend our hospitality and what we call ‘the Brooklyn way’ and stand out in a crowded marketplace not just for the artist, but for the ticket holders,” says Laurie Jacoby, chief entertainment officer and executive vp at Brooklyn Sports & Entertainment, the company that owns Barclays Center.

With Harry Styles camping out in Manhattan at nearby Madison Square Garden for 30 dates from late August through Halloween, Barclays shined with more tours coming through, hosting artists including Charli xcx, Phoebe Bridgers, Benson Boone, Shakira and Megan Moroney. Jacoby describes the summer and fall of 2026 as the venue’s best seasons yet.

“New York is amazing because it can support so much, but [Harry Styles] has been the best gift ever,” Jacoby says. “We were busy anyway, but it’s given us the opportunity to welcome sometimes people’s first big shows. It’s giving people an opportunity to be in Brooklyn and have a great experience.”

Barclays also tried to personalize shows for fans walking through its doors, including a campaign to create customized tarot cards for Bridgers’ three late-September dates at the venue. Grande’s five shows, meanwhile, grossed $13.5 million total from 75,400 tickets sold — the venue’s biggest Billboard Boxscore report of the year.

Those recent successes have extended a hot streak for the arena, which ranked at No. 6 on Billboard’s top venues (15,001-plus capacity, excluding stadiums) chart in 2025 with $125 million grossed and nearly 1 million tickets sold.

As the venue looks ahead to its upcoming bookings, it’ll need to continue to balance its tenant basketball teams (the NBA’s Brooklyn Nets and WNBA’s New York Liberty) with its concerts, work that Jacoby says comes together like a puzzle. With artists wanting to lean more into residencies, Jacoby notes that long lead times and communication are essential.

“People come together and try to make things work with their schedules and our venue,” she says. “Both leagues have been accommodating.” —A.K.

First Avenue Productions

Dayna Frank
Owner/CEO; founding board president/advocacy committee chair, National Independent Venue Association

Halo Sports & Entertainment

Gillian Zucker
CEO

Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment

Sean Saadeh
Chief programming officer/head of entertainment

I.M.P.

Seth Hurwitz
Owner

Legends Global

Dan Levy
CEO
Josh Kritzler
President of North American venues and content

Madison Square Garden Entertainment

James Dolan
Executive chairman/CEO; executive chairman/CEO, Sphere Entertainment
Josephine Vaccarello
President
Jennifer Koester
President/COO, Sphere, Sphere Entertainment
James Claffey
Executive vp of venue management

On her first day of work at New York’s Radio City Music Hall in 1998, Josephine Vaccarello — just a month out of college, starting a job as an administrative assistant — left the building in the evening and had to use the after-hours exit. That required walking through the opulent theater itself, and she wasn’t about to waste the moment.

“I was like, ‘I’m standing on the stage of Radio City Music Hall. I’m just going to do a thing!’ ” Vaccarello recalls today. So the self-professed “theater kid” from Long Island launched into “On My Own,” Éponine’s iconic lament from Les Misérables. “I had to go for it,” she says with a proud grin.

Nearly 30 years later, Vaccarello is sitting high above Midtown Manhattan on the roof of 2 Penn next to Madison Square Garden, which bought Radio City six months after she started that job. She’s in a very different position: In September, after three years as executive vp, live of Madison Square Garden Entertainment (MSGE) — where she’s spent her entire career — she was named its president.

“I’m going to be honest: I never wanted to leave,” Vaccarello, 50, says of her time with the company. “I love the company I work for. I love the buildings I get to work in. It still makes me get excited when I stand inside any of the venues and watch an entire room of people singing every word to every song, and I’m like, ‘I get to be part of that.’ It’s cool.”

Read the full story on Executive of the Year Josephine Vaccarello here.

Oak View Group

Becky Colwell
President of programming and content
Jeff Nickler
President, OVG Austin; GM, Moody Center
Mark Shulman
Executive vp of programming and content, OVG East
Michael Owens
Senior vp of live entertainment, Moody Center

TVG Hospitality

Ben Lovett
Founder/managing partner

VENU

JW Roth
Founder/chairman/CEO

Stadiums

Allegiant Stadium

Andy Gorchov
GM

Estadio GNP Seguros

Mario Villa Vera
Operations and venues director, OCESA

MetLife Stadium

Ron VanDeVeen
Chief programming officer

SoFi Stadium and Hollywood Park

Christy Castillo Butcher
Senior vp of booking and programming

During a mid-October Los Angeles Rams football game, Christy Castillo Butcher walked through SoFi Stadium, taking in the year so far. “It just blew me away that less than a week ago we had been hosting five nights of Bruno Mars,” she says.

Since SoFi and the Hollywood Park campus opened five years ago, the venue executive has fine-tuned that balance of high-profile sporting events — which this year included three FIFA World Cup games, next year kicks off with Super Bowl LXI and in 2028 will feature Summer Olympics and Paralympics competitions — with sold-out superstar concerts.

“We’re a stadium, but we turn and burn almost like an arena,” she says of SoFi, where as senior vp of booking and programming she and her team manage the “robust calendar” of the 300-plus-acre mixed-use development, which also includes the 6,000-capacity YouTube Theater, shops and restaurants. The sprawling space, she says, has helped shape the programming by making it “a destination spot,” particularly for mini-residencies, like multiple nights with Mars, Beyoncé or Taylor Swift on their most recent tours. SoFi ranked at No. 4 on Billboard’s 2025 year-end touring chart with $236.4 million grossed and 1.3 million tickets sold, and this year, it has grossed $165.9 million across 15 reported shows, according to Billboard Boxscore; BTS’ four-night run alone brought in $57.7 million.

Castillo Butcher, who during nearly two decades at AEG Presents booked major L.A. venues Crypto.com Arena and Peacock Theater, touts her relationship-building — a skill she put to good use this year in particular. “Leading up to FIFA World Cup, the challenge on the programming side is getting ahead of it. Understanding what our blackout dates are going to be,” she says. “It really was an effort with everybody here, talking to our partners and reminding them so they understand what that timeframe is. People listened, and they were willing to route around our availability.”

Another high point: Mexican grupero band Los Bukis concluded its reunion tour this February with two sold-out nights at SoFi — after reuniting for the first time in 25 years at the stadium in August 2021, shortly after it opened. “That was a really special moment for all of us, especially for those of us that were here when we opened,” she says.

She’s looking forward to the Super Bowl, which SoFi last hosted in 2022 and in 2027 will include a halftime show from Jay-Z. “It’s going to be reimagined because [last Super Bowl] we were limited coming out of COVID; we were still in some of those restrictions,” she recalls. “In just five years, we get to have that opportunity again. I’m really excited to see our team collaborate with the NFL and reimagine the space — it will be a brand-new Super Bowl.” —LYNDSEY HAVENS

Arenas

Afterpay Arena

Matthew Lazarus-Hall
GM

Coliseo de Puerto Rico

Melanie García Vélez
Booking manager

Golden State

Donna Daniels
GM, Chase Center

Movistar Arena Madrid

Manuel Saucedo
CEO

The O2

Steve Sayer
Senior vp/GM

State Farm Arena

Trey Feazell
Executive vp of arena programming

Ticketing

AXS

Bryan Perez
CEO
Dean DeWulf
Head of venues, North America

DICE

Andrew Foggin
Chief commercial officer

Seated

David McKay
Co-founder/president

StubHub

Eric Baker
CEO

Ticketmaster

Saumil Mehta
Global president
David Marcus
Executive vp of global music

Tour Marketing

237 Global

Mark Weiss
Founder/CEO

Genni

Johnny Cloherty
Co-founder/CEO

Michi B. Inc

Michele Bernstein
Owner

Michele Bernstein has long marketed some of the world’s biggest touring artists — work that over the last year and change has ranged from veterans including Dead & Company, Rush and Tool to younger acts such as Kendrick Lamar, Florence and the Machine, Machine Gun Kelly, Greta Van Fleet and Ivan Cornejo.

“We get to sell something really unique — it’s that in-real-life experience,” she says. “And that’s connective.”

But while the Dead’s community is the stuff of legends, Bernstein says she sees camaraderie across all of her clients’ fans. “Florence and the Machine is not dissimilar to the Dead; it’s an emotional experience,” she explains. “I work with podcasters too. I did Mel Robbins’ Let Them Tour [named after the author and podcaster’s popular “Let Them Theory”] … women are showing up with tattoos on their arms and they’re all wearing matching ‘Let Them’ shirts. It was like being at a Dead show!

“Music is subjective, but it’s not just music,” she continues. “It’s podcasters, it’s nontraditional touring, it’s comedy. It’s all these people being in the room with the people they really like — whatever their talent is.”

Still, Bernstein’s bread and butter is music touring, and for the marketing executive, who launched her own consultancy in 2020 following nearly two decades at WME, business is booming. Today, creative and intentional ideas are more important than ever to cut through the noise of social media, whether it’s partnering with a local doughnut shop to make custom doughnuts (“which we do a bunch”) or something more unexpected. Florence and the Machine’s most recent tour supported her album Everybody Scream, so “in Chicago, we found a scream club that screams on Sundays at Lake Michigan, and we did a promotion with them,” Bernstein says — just one of the tour’s market-specific, scream-­related events.

But it’s not just local businesses and organizations that are interested in collaboration — as major artists “have gotten more creative … companies are more open” to working together, Bernstein says. “Partners are more flexible to do things the artist’s way than to do it their way,” she notes. “Brands figured out that the magic is in the details, and that an artist on their socials can help drive their agenda far better than just an ad-buy. These brands also know that if they get an artist that’s on the rise, they’re going to have a huge win.” —ERIC RENNER BROWN

Tour Production

ARPI Group/ARPI Live

Claudio Resnick
CEO

Concert Stuff Group

Jim Brammer
CEO

HansTolo Enterprises

Tone Lopez
Raphiki Rhodes
Co-founders

Since 2010, HansTolo Enterprises has been a live-music mainstay, helping to power tours for prominent hip-hop and R&B superstars including Brandy & Monica, Mary J. Blige, 21 Savage and A$AP Rocky. This year, co-founders Tone Lopez and Raphiki Rhodes tackled two colossal undertakings: Cardi B’s first-ever headlining tour and the historic joint stadium run by R&B kings Chris Brown and Usher.

“This is the culmination of where we were trying to be two to three years ago,” Rhodes says. “We had this Cardi B tour land in our lap, and for it to be as successful as it was, it was more than a concert — it was borderline theatrical.”

After delivering her first album in seven years with 2025’s Am I the Drama?, Cardi took the Billboard 200 No. 1 to 35 North American cities from February to April on the Little Miss Drama Tour. A mix of Cardi’s signature hits and high-wattage arena visuals, the must-see spectacle grossed over $70 million and sold 453,000 tickets, according to Billboard Boxscore.

“We thought it was just going to be her rapping, but it ended up being a well-­produced show,” Lopez says. “There were a lot of production hiccups that [Rhodes] had to put his foot in and solve, but he handled them really well. He grew as a production manager from that tour alone.”

Rhodes and Lopez went straight from Cardi to another seismic challenge. Kicking off in late June, Brown and Usher’s three-hour R&B master class brought two of the genre’s leading men together in stadiums from coast to coast — and despite a tight rehearsal window, HansTolo orchestrated the historic outing. According to Billboard Boxscore, the tour grossed $91.8 million from 465,000 tickets sold in August, marking the second consecutive month it surpassed $90 million. (Brown and Usher will remain on the road through mid-December.)

“Chris and Usher are iconic,” Rhodes says. “I don’t think there’s anything we can do that would be at this level of iconic material, based on our upbringing and what we grew up listening to. It doesn’t get any better than that.” —CARL LAMARRE

Production Resource Group

Frederic Opsomer
Managing director, PRG Projects
John Wiseman
Executive vp of music
Randy Hutson
Senior vp of music, TV and film

Silent House

Baz Halpin
Founder/CEO
Alex Reardon
President, Silent House Studios

TAIT

Adam Davis
CEO
Brian Levine
Chief executive of global touring and producing

Multisector

Eventim USA/CTS Eventim

Phil Lawrence
Head of music/senior vp of business development

HYBE

Min E Kang
Leader of concert business division
Youra Oh
Leader of global touring business team
Jay Jungjae Ha
Senior professional

Opry Entertainment Group

Patrick Moore
CEO

Roc Nation

Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter
Founder/chairman
Desiree Perez
CEO
Jay Brown
Vice chairman

SM Entertainment

Sanghwa Lee
Chief business officer

Associations

Backline

Hilary Gleason
Co-founder/executive director

International Entertainment Buyers Association

Brian Wagner
Executive director

National Independent Talent Organization

Nathaniel Marro
Executive director

Independent live music has an affordability crisis: The cost of touring has gone up for artists and fans are being priced out of events thanks to rising ticket prices and predatory secondary market practices — and, even when venues get them in the door, those same fans are spending less on concessions.

“If we’re sending people out on 30-day tours and they’re saying they’re not ­making money and all the venues are saying they’re not making money, then no one’s doing well,” says Nathaniel Marro, executive director of the National Independent Talent Organization, which represents a growing number of indie agencies and managers.

Over the past year, NITO has helped its members — as well as venue and promoter partners — rethink how they do business. The proliferation of performing rights organizations (which collect royalties for songs performed at concerts) has driven the cost of touring up without songwriters seeing meaningful returns when royalties are paid out. NITO, along with royalty tracking platform Tour Tech, has begun researching the system in an attempt to modernize outdated practices and more accurately pay songwriters.

In addition, alongside Reverb Data’s Andy Blair, who previously served as chief privacy officer at Universal Music Group, NITO drafted a data share policy for members to use when negotiating show deals with venues and promoters. The policy requires venues and promoters to share ticket buyer data with artists, who can use that information to market directly to fans — because, according to studies conducted by NITO, direct communication from an artist is more effective at grabbing fans than marketing from venues or promoters. The artist is “the one central place that basically everyone that you’ve gathered this [data] from agrees should have it,” Marro says.

NITO has also been battling to keep concerts affordable for fans by working on fair ticketing legislation in New York, California, Vermont, Maine and Washington, D.C. In July, NITO collected signatures from more than 40 New England-based artists including Noah Kahan, Aimee Mann, Dropkick Murphys, MGMT and Grace Potter to support Massachusetts’ The Great Divide Act, which would cap resale prices, ban speculative ticketing practices (when resellers list tickets on the secondary market before possessing them), make fraudulent ticketing sites illegal and more. These legislative measures could help lower soaring ticket prices.

Marro and his peers in the live sector feel the lack of regulation around concert ticketing in the United States could drive the next generation of concertgoers away. “How many times do you need to be slapped across the face before saying, ‘OK, this doesn’t work for me anymore’? If you keep striking out on the concerts you want to see, you’re going to stop wanting to go to concerts,” he says. “We need to figure out ways that [concerts] aren’t once-every-six-months or once-a-year expenditures.” —TAYLOR MIMS

National Independent Venue Association

Stephen Parker
Executive director

Venue Coalition/ArenaNetwork

Andrew Prince
President

Contributors: Katie Bain, Eric Renner Brown, Hannah Dailey, Bill Donahue, Josh Glicksman, Lyndsey Havens, Ariel King, Carl Lamarre, Joe Lynch, Elizabeth Dilts Marshall, Taylor Mims, Gail Mitchell, Melinda Newman, Jessica Nicholson, Sigal Ratner-Arias, Isabela Raygoza, Kristin Robinson, Jessica Roiz, Michael Saponara, Rachel Scharf

Methodology: Billboard’s Touring Power Players list recognizes executives driving the success of live music over the past year, solely among promoters, agencies, venues, ticketing companies and industry associations. Nominations for all of Billboard’s industry-sourced executive lists open no less than 150 days in advance of publication, and a submission link is sent by request before the nomination period. (Email thom.duffy@billboard.com for inclusion on the email list for nomination links and for how to obtain an editorial calendar.) Billboard’s 2026 Touring Power Players were nominated by their firms and chosen by editors based on factors including their company’s impact on consumer behavior, as measured by recent Billboard Boxscore charts. Career trajectory and momentum were also considered.