Live Nation Wants Artists to Take Pay Cuts

Fuck live nation. Take away money from tours and...what do artists have left?

 

So so scummy

 

Live Nation CEO to Forego Salary as Company Implements Cost-Cutting Measures

Scummy? hardly. i work here. my friends have been furloughed. we all took pay cuts. we're trying to SURVIVE in the biggest economic downturn that hits LIVE the hardest.

 

I have many suggestions on ways they could have better prepared, but the easy one is ... the CEO not being worth a quarter of a billion dollars:

Rapino earned $70.6 million in 2017 and was reported to have one of the highest discrepancies in salary between CEO and his employees who earned an average of $24,000

Cause, yuck:

This shafting of consumers fed one of the largest CEO pay packages recorded thus far in 2017. Michael Rapini, CEO of Live Nation, made $70.6 million last year, including $58.6 million in stock. The average employee at Live Nation makes $24,406, for a CEO/worker ratio of 2,893:1. Put another way, it takes just 41 minutes for Michael Rapini to earn the average worker’s annual wage.

 

Most of that $70MM was on the sale of stock. When i started 5 years ago, it was at ~$24 per share. 10 years ago the stock was <$10 per share. Michael sold a bunch in the $60-70 range. That's not salary. that's betting on your own company. The consumers didn't pay him $70M...the market value of the company increased because LN is smart at acquiring assets (festivals, venues, promoters). The market believes in LN, so the value goes up.

If you wanna do the same comparison, look at Tim Cook @ Apple. Worth $625MM. While the person at the apple store makes $25k/yr. Soooooo ....?

 

Yeah, I wanna tax Tim Cook and Apple **way** more too. But Apple isn’t claiming poverty rn and fucking over workers and artists in this way. Your boss could pay for all of you to be working right now, no pay cuts or layoffs needed, don’t hold water for him!

 

They're fuckin over lots of ppl in china making iphones.

Look man, i feel you. Artists need to get paid for their work. The challenge is often that if an artist pulls the plug, we're still on the hook for the venue and event staff. not to mention the countless people who put time and effort into getting tours ready. furthermore, if an artist cancels - in breach - it's bc every artist, manager, etc has had the chance to review their upcoming tours and make a decision to cancel or postpone.

You look at live nation as this corporate empire, but really we're a company of many small businesses like C3, Superfly, Founders, House of Blues. All of whom have staff. All of whom have costs. We rely on tours far more than the artists to do make money. It's literally 100% of our business.

Re: cutting guarantees... that's just the check an artist gets BEFORE the tour. Before they even get on the tour bus. The artist will be made whole based on the ticket sales of the tour. this is just the upfront cash we're talking about.

To put a finer point on this, we're talking about the artists that tour with LN. Typically playing larger clubs and Amphitheaters. We're not talking about up and coming acts. The kind of artists that ppl come to this site to read about.

In summary:
- If the artist cancels in breach, we dont have the cash to float it bc of the COVID impact.
- The artist will still get paid and be made whole, but the upfront cash is gonna shave off 20%...bc covid.

In short, the artist isnt getting fucked over. LN is doing what it needs to do to keep live events happening. If i'm you, i'd be more worried about the NIVA report that 90% of indie venues are at risk of going under. I know you reported on that. But, to me, that has far larger impact on the industry than LN tightening financial agreements with touring artists.

 

You saying things I agree with about Apple, doesn't make me think LiveNation is some how now in the right or is handling everything correctly. Saying "look over at this other company" is nothing more than a distraction. I agree with them! Haha

I know, and I'm saying the dude worth a quarter billion dollars being on the hook to make them whole, and keep people working and paid, instead is more than ok with me. Let's use his money for good. Instead they're claiming "oh gee we can't do this" and I look at the executive salaries for the past few years and ... uh ... it's pretty obvious.

This is a good reason why you should be pissed off you're struggling while your boss has more money than he'll ever be able to spend.

 

its shitty but if bands want to play live, they are going to have to make some sacrifices like everyone else in the pandemic. If these venues go out of business, there will be nowhere for them to play.

 

I see both sides of it. No one knows what the future holds and there’s a lot of liability booking the first tours and shows back. This is only a temporary fixture, and I’m sure all types of promoters will be enacting something like it to cover their ass. It’s going to be a risky time for bands and promoters. And if promoters can’t feasibly exist then bands can’t tour.

 

i hope you didn't take what i said personally. i feel the struggle, i'm also furloughed. i still disagree with your employer's business practices.