Coachella's Next Headliners, Live Nation Fallout, New THE•TEAM Mates?
Olivia Rodrigo
dua lipa
Thom Yorke
Jennie
CHELLA-THON: Talk about striking when the iron's hot! Mere days after wrapping the 2026 edition of Coachella, AEG Presents and Goldenvoice have announced that next year's festival will be held April 9-11 and 16-18, with tickets on sale May 1. There won't be a lineup reveal for at least six months, but observers are bandying about a number of names.
From the pop world, how about Olivia Rodrigo, whose upcoming Geffen album, you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love, will be almost a year old by April 2027? Or Dua Lipa, who’s hard at work on the follow-up to 2024's Radical Optimism? With an August Lollapalooza co-headlining play already in her back pocket, could Olivia Dean continue her charmed run at America's biggest live events?
Elsewhere, K-pop superstars BLACKPINK could reconvene in the desert after members JENNIE and LISA appeared individually this year. The reunited Radiohead is a solid bet in its own right; AEG promoted many of the dates on the group's fall 2025 European tour and worked closely with it to create the first-of-its-kind bunker on the Coachella site, KID A MNESIA (the 75-minute film screened therein was shot during sessions for the Kid A and Amnesia albums). And don't rule out AEG global touring client Carín León, who will become the first Latin artist to headline Sphere later this year.
There’s plenty of parallel speculation about touring next steps for 2026 headliner Justin Bieber, whose no-frills sets generated the biggest streaming boost of the artist’s career. We’re told offers for major festival appearances, one-off stadium dates and even residencies have begun to arrive. Those would likely be more appealing than a full-blown tour, which Bieber hasn’t undertaken since canceling his Justice outing in early 2023.
While we’re still in the desert, Stagecoach saddles up this weekend with a bill featuring Lainey Wilson, Post Malone and Cody Johnson as headliners, plus Ella Langley, Bailey Zimmerman, The Red Clay Strays, Riley Green, Brooks & Dunn and a bunch of ’90s rock acts (Counting Crows, Third Eye Blind) that want their own place in the sun. Feeling parched? Swing by the Shaboozey Saloon, a short-notice idea brought to life over the past two weeks. The CAA-repped “Tipsy” crooner will belly up to the bar throughout the fest.
TALK OF THE TOWN: When the Live Nation antitrust verdict was announced last week, much of the live biz was milling about the annual Pollstar Live! Music Conference in Los Angeles and the news spread like a game of telephone; conversations among agents, bookers, managers, promoters and buyers were interrupted by people thrusting news stories on their phones at one another. Speculation quickly escalated as to what, if any, eventual penalties could impact Live Nation or the industry overall. Most agreed that substantive next steps could take months, if not years, while the inevitable motions and appeals are resolved. Penalties could come down within the next couple of weeks.
Sure, Live Nation could survive a fine of nearly any number, but a government-ordered breakup of the world’s largest promoter and its trusty ticketing arm, Ticketmaster, would send shockwaves throughout the industry. While it would have a seismic effect on the company itself, such an action would probably have little bearing on the larger live-music economics.
Saumil Mehta
Darryl Eaton
Coran Capshaw
Emma Banks
Ticketmaster Global President Saumil Mehta had long been scheduled to deliver a keynote speech at the Pollstar conference April 15, but he would not discuss the trial, saying instead that the company would let the regulatory machinations play out. If it’s lucky, that might happen before a certain orange guy leaves office.
Per a separate case, decided April 21, after the antitrust decision, Live Nation will be forced to pay $9.9m to the District of Columbia for misleading ticket buyers for years through hidden mandatory fees, inadequate fee disclosures and pressure tactics that falsely suggested tickets were selling fast, according to D.C. Attorney General Brian L. Schwalb.
Meanwhile, back at Pollstar, CAA swept the top honors, including Agency of the Year. Co-head of Global Touring Darryl Eaton won the Bobby Brooks Award for Agent of the Year, while partner Emma Banks received the International Agent of the Year award. Allison McGregor was named Marketing Executive of the Year. Danny Wimmer Presents’ Del Williams earned Talent Buyer of the Year, Live Nation’s Arthur Fogel received the Bill Graham Award for Promoter of the Year and Red Light’s Coran Capshaw was once again named Personal Manager of the Year.
TEAM MEETING: In the two months since Casey Wasserman was forced to put his namesake company up for auction following fallout from his name surfacing in emails with Ghislaine Maxwell, the renamed THE•TEAM has become an enviable commodity on the open market. The deadline to submit a formal expression of interest closed earlier this week, and word is that both UTA and ex-Endeavor chairman Patrick Whitesell did just that. Other competing agencies like CAA and WME did not. Providence Equity, which has a big stake in Wasserman, is continuing to help navigate the transaction.
RIP DKD: Donald Tarlton, the legendary Canadian concert promoter known by all in the live-entertainment business as Donald K. Donald, died last week at the age of 82. The pioneering Montreal native promoted shows by such giants as The Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, David Bowie, Rush, Celine Dion and U2, and his Aquarius Records label launched the careers of multiplatinum acts Sum 41, Corey Hart and April Wine.
Tarlton got into the biz after an unfortunate run-in with Janis Joplin backstage at a 1968 Montreal gig. Promoter Sam Gesser had hired him as the evening’s stage manager, but after a drunken Joplin vomited all over his shoes, the horrified exec said to his younger colleague, “‘Donald, you can take over all the rock stuff,’” Tarlton recalled to the Montreal Gazette. “And that was it. I became the rock promoter of Montreal.”
AEG UPS DUO: Katie Mae Miller has been named VP, integrated marketing at AEG Regions, while Chelsea Cloud is the new VP, integrated marketing at parent Goldenvoice. Miller previously served as senior director, integrated marketing at AEG subsidiary Zero Mile; Cloud joins the company from Universal Music Group, where she was VP of global brand partnerships. Miller will be based in Atlanta and Cloud in Los Angeles, both reporting to AEG Presents SVP, Marketing & Digital Strategy Victoria Torchia. HITS expects to be featured in a new meme any minute now.