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Radio Edit | 4.28.23

Radio Edit | 4.28.23

with Goldenvoice's Rebecca Cicione

Radio Edit Team
April 28, 2023

This week we have a very special interview with Goldenvoice’s Rebecca Cicione about the thoughtful and holistic marketing efforts that go into pulling off their annual Stagecoach festival- taking place this weekend. Other stories include a look at last weekend’s Record Store Day and a whole bunch of new hires across the industry.

Top Stories

Filling the corral: marketing country music’s coolest festival

With both weekends of Coachella in the rearview, there’s a new sheriff in town this week as Stagecoach rides into the Indio polo grounds. AEG’s festival marketing guru Rebecca Cicione gives us a behind-the-scenes look at the marketing efforts behind one of the largest country music festivals in the world.

First question- how many people have asked if you can get them wristbands so far?

HA. I’ve lost count – I was just reading one

While Stagecoach only takes place for one weekend, how is your team supporting the event throughout the year?

Stagecoach is practically year round at this point with the advance sale happening last summer to the onsale, to show – it really is a full time gig in itself!

How do your marketing efforts change when the lineup is announced versus the year round strategies you're focusing on prior to?

When the lineup is announced there’s big looks, big names, big attention. When the year goes on is when you can be extra creative and lean into partners as well as local marketing. This is where the fun starts!

Were there any special activations or campaigns you ran for this year's festival? And how do you measure the success of a given campaign?

Absolutely! My favorite thing to do is throw a good party and I found some really great partners in Desert 5 and Winston House. When the lineup was announced in September we did an event each night for a week at Desert 5 to celebrate and get the word out. Goldenvoice is really open to new ideas and partners and it’s opened doors for where the festival is promoted and really brings it into the local LA scene. In addition we went as grassroots as showing up to country bars in LA, Orange County, etc with a photobooth and branded swag to get people engaged. No move is too big or too small. We took over the Lakers game on Easter with Stagecoach branding and giveaways, as well as multiple Nascar events, and the Ontario Reign game. When country shows were playing off at GV venues, we’d literally setup a photo station next to a framed larger than life lineup poster and give people hand made Orville peck masks. Stagecoach traveled to where the country fans were!

With country music being primarily associated with Nashville, do your marketing efforts primarily cater to that community or are you targeting a more national/global audience?

LA is filled with cowboys now, baby! We ARE indeed targeting all of Southern California, which believe it or not isn’t too far from Nashville’s demo – but we’re also hitting people nationwide with our targeted ads and messaging.

The Frank Fallout

Following a highly chaotic weekend 1 performance and a subsequent cancellation of his weekend 2 slot, the disaster that was Frank Ocean’s headline slot at this year’s Coachella will likely end up costing the festival millions. With under a week to find a replacement for weekend 2, the festival was forced to book Blink-182 as a last second replacement for Ocean, who was reportedly scheduled to make $4mm for each of his headline performances.

While a standard festival contract sees the promoter pay a performance rate plus standard production costs, the artist is typically liable for any additional production costs- which in Ocean’s case included an ice skating rink large enough to accommodate 100 skaters. Goldenvoice had initially planned on recouping the costs for the rink from his performance fees but with expenses exceeding his $4mm rate, the promoter will likely have to eat the expenses.

Despite the millions in production costs they were forced to absorb and the $133k they racked up in curfew fines, the festival is still expected to turn a profit. Billboard

What Else Is Going On

Signings

SG Lewis signs with Godmode

Mom+Pop adds Goth Babe to roster

Epic Records’ Doe Boy signs management deal with Salxco

Deer Tick signs with ATO Records

Slipknot’s Corey Taylor signs with BMG for upcoming solo record

Streaming / Radio

After adding 5M premium subscribers in Q1, Spotify’s total user count balloons to 210M

Live / Touring

A look at the economics of John Mayer’s Solo tour

The rise of sober spaces at music events

Label

Grimes and Columbia Records part ways

Publishing

Rights management and sync business give Round Hill 32% revenue boost

Other

There were so many Taylor Swift fans in line for her Record Store Day release that NY’s Record Shop had to create two lines, one for the Swift purchasers and one for everybody else

The latest on Ed Sheeran’s copyright trial

Appointments / Departures

Appointments

Sean Heydorn elevated to SVP at Rise Records

Warner Music Latina names Carlos Pérez SVP, Communications & PR

Featured Releases

The National / First Two Pages of Frankenstein (A) / 4AD

Spotify | Apple Music | Amazon Music

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PJ Harvey / A Child’s Question, August (S) / Partisan

Spotify | Apple Music | Amazon Music

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