According to the industry tracker Pollstar, each concert generates some $13 million in revenue, which would put the total proceeds at $1.9 billion.
Why vinyl records like Taylor Swift’s ‘The Life of a Showgirl’ are protected from tariffs
Friday, October 3, 2025
Taylor Swift performs onstage during The Eras Tour at Wembley Stadium on June 21, 2024, in London. Kevin Mazur | Getty Images
On Friday, 24-year-old Tayra McDaniels will scamper down the stairs of her East Village apartment building and pick up four preordered vinyl editions of Taylor Swift’s new album, “The Life of a Showgirl” — each a different color and with a different collectible cover. Then she’ll head over to Target to snag three more exclusive CDs and another vinyl, she said.
The haul will cost her more than $200. “I know it’s a lot of money,” she said. “But I don’t want to miss out.”
One point of reprieve in the price: McDaniels and other vinyl fans won’t have to worry about tariffs on their hauls.
Vinyl records, CDs and cassettes were spared from the Trump administration’s late-August rollback of the “de minimis” exemption. The exemption, which had allowed packages valued at less than $800 to be imported without tariffs, was designed to simplify customs for low-cost imports and reduce fees for both consumers and small retailers. Trump’s rollback of the exemption allowed tariffs to take effect on such shipments — but not on physical music.
A Cold War-era carveout known as the Berman Amendment to the International Emergency Economic Powers Act prevents presidents from regulating the flow of “informational materials,” a category that includes physical music, books and artwork.
“If vinyl had gotten tariffed, you could have possibly seen the price of a record going up to $40 and $50,” Berklee College of Music professor Ralph Jaccodine told CNBC. “So, this is welcome news for people buying physical music.”
The exemption, which is protecting one of the fastest-growing segments of the music industry, is also welcome on Wall Street.
Vinyl sales have roared back in the past decade, particularly during the pandemic, driven by younger buyers and an appetite for nostalgia. The PVC discs now account for nearly three-quarters of all U.S. physical music revenue — a nearly 20% jump since 2020, according to data from the Recording Industry Association of America.
“It is very encouraging and a bit of a relief that physical music formats have been classified as exempt to tariffs,” said Ryan Mitrovich, general manager of the Vinyl Alliance, a nonprofit promoting physical media that works with manufacturers, distributors and music labels. “However, we’re not really taking anything for granted here with the chaotic climate around trade disruptions.”
The sales boom has been lucrative for record labels such as Universal Music Group or UMG, which works with Swift.
Her last album, “The Tortured Poets Department,” sold 3.49 million physical and digital copies, according to entertainment data company Luminate, driving a 9.6% jump in UMG’s second-quarter revenue in 2024 compared with the same period in 2023. Physical revenue, which includes vinyl, surged by 14.4% during the quarter.
Without a Swift album on shelves so far this year, UMG’s most recent earnings report, in July, showed a 4.5% uptick in revenue year over year, but physical revenue decreased by 12.4%. UMG shares fell 24% after the July earnings release.
Universal Music Group declined to comment.
The downturn could be short-lived. Estimates from Billboard predict that first-week vinyl sales of Swift’s new 12-track album, which debuts Friday, could top 1 million — breaking her own record of 859,000 for “The Tortured Poets Department.”
“Taylor Swift has unique ability to drive the market through her decisions of what and how to release music,” said Jaccodine, who has worked with artists such as Bruce Springsteen. “Swift’s release can and will likely cause a boom in the music business.”
Tariff trade-offs
Not everyone is celebrating the tariff exemptions. Some American record manufacturers say they’re missing out on business.
“We support the tariffs because it helps U.S. manufacturing, and we want to be a part of the wave of making things in the USA,” Alex Cushing, co-founder and president of Dallas-based Hand Drawn Records, told CNBC.
Most vinyl is pressed overseas, industry experts said, with the largest manufacturer, GZ Media, based in the Czech Republic. GZ CEO Michal Štěrba said the company has made top-selling albums for artists such as Lady Gaga, Madonna and U2. On average, the company produces 1 in 4 records from plants around the globe, including ones in Nashville and Memphis, Tennessee, he added.
“Our goal is to keep production as close to the customer as possible, so that a record sold in the U.S. is also made in the U.S.,” Štěrba told CNBC.
If tariffs were imposed, Štěrba said, costs would get passed on to consumers. The Czech Republic is part of the European Union, which faces a 15% blanket tariffs on EU exports to the U.S.
“By keeping tariff costs out of the supply chain — regardless of the product or country — consumers benefit through better pricing,” Štěrba said in a statement. “Ultimately, it’s usually the customer who has to pay a higher price if tariffs are applied.”
Cushing, a board member of the Vinyl Record Manufacturers Association, said he believes there would be more American jobs if tariffs were to apply to vinyl.
“We could put more hard-working Americans to work with good wages,” he said. “Our company makes 2 million records annually with a staff of just 60. If you want to grow manufacturing jobs, this would be a great industry.”
Cushing said U.S. manufacturers like his don’t have the capacity to handle the demand for an album on Swift’s scale. But for smaller-scale artists, he said, tariffs on imports could shift more business stateside.
“Our raw materials are tariffed, but with skyrocketing shipping and material costs globally, regional shipping in the U.S., coupled with having lower inventory, could help lower costs,” Cushing said.
Some American manufacturers preempted extra costs earlier this year.
“Tariffs were definitely forecasted, and the industry was preparing for this for quite a while,” Vinyl Alliance’s Mitrovich said. “We saw a lot of companies defend against this by increasing their stocks of ink, PVC and other things in the months leading up to the tariffs.”
Artists’ earnings
For many artists, physical sales remain more lucrative than streaming.
On Spotify, earnings usually range between $0.003 and $0.005 per stream based on an artist’s contract with their record label, Jaccodine said. Meanwhile, artists typically enjoy between 10% and 25% of royalties on physical records, according to the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers.
“Unless you are just a handful of musicians, you basically are not making enough money from streaming to sustain,” Jaccodine said. “For artists large and small, merchandise like records, CDs, cassettes, hats, hoodies and ticket sales are the bread and butter.”
For comparison, Swift’s Eras Tour, which was the highest-grossing tour of all time, sold over $2 billion worth of tickets for 149 shows over two years, The New York Times reported. Meanwhile, she earned between $200 million and $400 million from streaming platforms over that same period, according to figures from Billboard.
Gen Z’s buying power
Analysts expect the vinyl market to keep expanding, though not at the explosive pace seen during the pandemic.
“The market for vinyl is strong and is likely to be for the foreseeable future, but there could always be supply troubles,” Jaccodine said.
Gen Z has fueled vinyl’s resurgence, industry experts said. Nearly 60% of 18- to 24-year-olds in a survey by music manufacturer Key Production said they listen to physical music, the highest of any demographic group. The survey was conducted Feb. 27-March 5, 2024, in the U.K., and had 503 respondents.
The vinyl comeback also kicked off an explosion in the number of “variants” released: collectible editions of albums or singles with alternative cover art, colored discs or vinyl-exclusive bonus tracks.
On TikTok, “vinyl hauls” rack up millions of views as fans show off rare variants and collections, sparking demand and motivating fans such as McDaniels to buy.
“It’s sort of like Pokémon where you ‘gotta catch ‘em all,’” McDaniels said. “There’s FOMO [fear of missing out] if someone has a variant that you don’t.”
Experts said Gen Z’s interest in vinyl is also a response to digital burnout.
“So many groups are on their screens paying fees to have access to content but do not ever actually own anything, so this gives them physical ownership,” Cushing said. “Vinyl is counter to all the ease of modern music listening and that’s why people want it.”
No artist has capitalized on the trend more than Swift.
“The Tortured Poets Department” was 2024′s top album, accounting for over 6% of total album sales — more than seven times the next-best-selling artist, according to Luminate. Swift released 36 different album variants in the U.S. across digital and physical music.
“The Life of a Showgirl” comes in at least seven different variants of colored vinyl, each with a unique cover. For Swift and UMG, every exclusive edition of a vinyl record, CD or cassette has the potential to generate millions in extra revenue.
“Sales of Swift’s albums act as drivers for the fortunes of almost the entire music industry,” Jaccodine said. “Her fans are waiting with bated breath for the release, but so is the industry.”
For McDaniels and thousands of other superfans, the lingering question is how easy it will be to get the exclusive variants first.
“I know people think it’s crazy,” she said. “As long as a vinyl stays under $75 for a new release, I feel like it is worth it. It’s like an addiction to getting these, but I love collecting them.”
Folk has always been the ‘people’s music’ – and that definition is still expanding
Wednesday, September 24, 2025
Joan Baez and Bob Dylan, pictured performing at the Newport Folk Festival in 1964, will both be discussion topics at Saturday's symposium.Folk New England Archives
By Globe Correspondent
Sound Check is the Globe’s weekly guide to concerts, tunes, and trends rooted in Boston and beyond. This column covers Sept. 26-Oct 2.
Assigning firm definitions to genres of music in 2025 is like changing lanes in the O’Neill Tunnel during rush hour. It’s like explaining that no, the Patriots are not the same without Brady and Belichick, but yes, we still aggressively pledge allegiance to them. It’s like finding — and gatekeeping — a Dunkin’ location that never has a long line and also routinely gets your order correct.
All this to say: It’s complicated, even for an expert, and likely to piss off at least one person.
Over the last decade in particular, musical styles have become harder to pin down, partially because artists increasingly dabble in multiple sounds, and partially because some music critics invent subgenres for sport (guilty). Perhaps the only style that’s remotely immune to these blurred lines and overlap is the people’s music — that is, the vast umbrella of folk.
Panelists will delve into the genre’s local history this Saturday at “Wasn’t That a Time: The Boston Folk Revival 1958-1965,” a symposium presented by Boston’s Folk Americana Roots Hall of Fame in partnership with the Bruce Springsteen Archives & Center for American Music. The all-day event at Arrow Street Arts in Cambridge largely focuses on the area’s pivotal role in 20th-century folk music, and will feature guest appearances from Peter Wolf, Anna Canoni (Woody Guthrie’s granddaughter), and keynote speaker Noel Paul Stookey, of Peter, Paul and Mary.
Among these interlocking pieces of music history, the most essential topic might be the one that’s not well-tread: the symposium’s finale, a discussion examining the trajectory of “post-revival folk.” To get a glimpse at the genre’s present and future, panelists say to look at the musicians perfecting their pickin’ in Boston — and how they’re picking to protest.
“This [folk] wasn’t a time capsule that we can look back and say, ‘oh yeah, that was great and then it stopped’ — it evolved, and it’s still evolving,” says panelist Deana McCloud, founding executive director of the Woody Guthrie Center in Tulsa, and a curator at the Folk Americana Roots Hall of Fame. “Hip-hop is folk, punk is folk.”
McCloud notes that institutions like Passim are already leading the way in broadening the public’s view of folk music through the Folk Collective, a rotating cohort of creatives working to diversify the historic club’s programming. Since the cohort’s debut in 2023, it’s launched events like We Black Folk Fest, a showcase of Black musicians that strives to expand guests’ often-whitewashed notions about folk and its origins.
Outside of intimate listening rooms like Passim, the genre’s past and present merge at raucous punk outings from Dropkick Murphys, who have recorded two albums with unused Woody Guthrie lyrics, including 2022’s “This Machine Still Kills Fascists” (a tweaked version of the slogan that Guthrie famously wrote on an acoustic guitar).
“The music doesn’t die because somebody else, somebody is no longer here physically,” adds panelist Ralph Jaccodine, a Berklee professor with a decades-honed background in artist management. He cites the Dropkicks’ use of Guthrie lyrics as a prime example of folk’s ethos permeating styles like punk, although in his classrooms, he says there’s no shortage of interest in straight-ahead roots and Americana music.
As Berklee’s American Roots Music program swells, Jaccodine notes a “resurgence” of interest in the genre’s more acoustic roots, in part because students are unplugging and distancing themselves from AI-generated art.
“While this [genre] is getting attention — the Molly Tuttles of the world, people playing mandolin and banjo — we have AI coming out,” Jaccodine says, noting the array of technology available to musicians. “I feel like there is a change to more simple times, to more acoustic times.”
Regrettably, music created by AI has the potential to go viral just as quickly as “real” tunes. Look at the Velvet Sundown, a phony band who managed to garner 1.4 million monthly Spotify listeners in less than two months earlier this year. Since it was exposed as AI, interest in the group has plummeted, but not everyone has tuned out; the group still boasts approximately 295,000 monthly listeners on the platform.
Call it a new chapter for folk: “the people’s music” has officially evolved from “music created by anyone, regardless of training or background” to “music created by anyone with a soul and a pulse.”
Music Manager Group Founder Ralph Jaccodine joins Chuck Nilosek on Rock Talk
Thursday, June 26, 2025
Meet Ralph Jaccodine of Ralph Jaccodine Management/Berklee College of Music
Tuesday, October 22, 2024
Today we’d like to introduce you to Ralph Jaccodine.
Ralph, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I started promoting concerts in my hometown of Allentown, Pa. And then at the University of Notre Dame where I was the concert commissioner. I was able to work with artists such as Bruce Springsteen, Hall & Oates, Rush, Kiss and Livingston Taylor, who years later I started to manage.
After a decade in the commercial real estate business in downtown Boston, I embarked on another career chapter and started a record label with my friend Mike Dreese, the founder of the Newbury Comics retail chain.
Eventually, this set me on a 25-year path of managing artists such as Livingston Taylor, Ellis Paul, Martin Sexton, The Push Stars, Adam Ezra, Rebecca Loebe, Shun Ng & Magic Dick from the J. Geils band and others.
Five years ago I joined the faculty of the Berklee College of Music and eventually, was promoted to a full-time faculty position in the Music Business/Management department which is where I have found an inspiring new home.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
There is no smooth ride in the music business.
As a manager, I am paid a commission from what independent touring musicians make traveling the globe. The climate for the musicians, and for the music industry, in general, is always changing, growing, and sometimes shrinking, sometimes at the same time.
On most days there is never a dull moment.
The job of a manager is not for those who thrive on consistency, or security. Managers ‘eat what they kill’ so it is a job of constant hustle and creating something out of nothing… much like the job of a musician.
Somehow I have managed to have amazingly talented artists to partner with which has helped smooth out many of the bumps in the road. It has also created a lifetime of good stories.
Ralph Jaccodine Management/ Berklee College of Music – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
Ralph Jaccodine Management was established in 1994 in Boston as an artist management company built on integrity and tenacity. The company has thrived with years of success launching musicians and their artistic projects in an ever-changing music business.
The RJ Management company also runs Black Wolf Records which initially partnered with nationally acclaimed singer-songwriter Ellis Paul, then other artists, to create a catalog of music, visual media and book releases.
The philosophy is indie and fiercely independent with global reach in mind for our artists. The goal is to dedicate building lasting careers, focusing on working hard and doing things the right way for the right reasons.
What is “success” or “successful” for you?
Success is leading a balanced life where my heart, mind, spirit, body… and bank account all get proper attention.
Success is when I can be in the moment… and understand how darn lucky I have been with being given another day to do what I do.
Taylor Swift Takes On Hollywood
Wednesday, October 4, 2023
She already rules music, so now it's on to Tinseltown: Taylor Swift's concert documentary is poised to dominate the fall movie season, challenging the hegemony of film studios and consecrating her business empire.
Swift is taking a break from her wildly popular tour that began in March -- performances will resume in November and run late into next year.
But in the meantime, the 33-year-old is hitting the silver screen: "Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour" is slated for release on October 13, and has already broken the record for pre-sales in the United States in one day, with $37 million in revenue.
The film could exceed $100 million in its opening weekend, said Jeff Bock, an analyst for box office tracker Exhibitor Relations.
"I think we could be talking about the biggest film of the fall season, which is pretty incredible," he told AFP -- even if, for now, only screenings in the United States are on the books.
Swift opted for an unconventional release, announcing it less than two months before its premiere and directly working with the theater giant AMC, while bypassing the traditional film studios.
And in a sign that Hollywood -- which is embroiled in prolonged twin strikes by actors and writers -- fears Swift's release, studios have postponed the opening screenings of several films that fall around the same dates, notably that of "The Exorcist: Believer."
According to the specialist news outlet Puck, the budget of Swift's film fell between $10-20 million.
She will share 57 percent of ticket sales with AMC, says Billboard, a similar proportion to what studios would normally receive. The remainder would go to theaters, under the deal.
"I don't know an artist today with that kind of leverage," said Ralph Jaccodine, a professor at the Berklee College of Music.
The Eras Tour currently boasts 146 dates, and some analysts anticipate it will cross the symbolic $1 billion mark, a feat never yet achieved.
Before her tour and film, Swift garnered significant attention -- and found resounding success -- by re-recording her first six albums in a bid to control their master rights.
The power move came in the wake of public sparring with industry mogul Scooter Braun, her one-time manager whose company had purchased her previous label and thereby gained a majority stake in her early work.
He later sold Swift's master rights to a private equity company.
The situation left Swift publicly incensed: "I just feel that artists should own their work," she said in 2019.
"She's a vocal advocate for artists' rights," Jaccodine said. "She's built her own brand."
Swift is currently worth an estimated $740 million, according to Forbes, but steps closer every day to becoming the first singer worth a billion based on her music alone.
Before her public efforts to regain control of her work, Prince, George Michael, Jay-Z and Kanye West all also fought for control of their masters -- one-of-a-kind source material that dictate how songs are reproduced and sold -- but none had gone so far as to re-record them completely.
"She has been very bold in terms of the strategies that she's been willing to pursue," said Carolyn Mary Sloane, a labor economist at the University of Chicago. "She's been willing to pursue all of these different avenues, a very kind of savvy and smart and strategic economics."
"So you might see some change from other artists."
Pop sensation Olivia Rodrigo, for example, has said she ensured control of her master rights when inking her first contract, inspired by Swift.
Swift has sweetened her re-releases with bonus material and previously unreleased tracks -- like the 10-minute version of "All Too Well" -- to the delight of her ardent fans.
Making an event of each re-release also allowed her to promote her early work to younger fans, who were perhaps less versed in her "Taylor Swift" and "Fearless" periods.
In a similar vein, her "Eras" film will grant "people an entry into her concert" even if they couldn't afford or make it to the live show, Jaccodine said.
Other artists have released concert or tour films in theaters; "Justin Bieber: Never Say Never" from 2011 has performed the best at the North American box office thus far, with $73 million in revenue.
But, according to Bock, the industry has never seen "a film like this drop at the height of an artist's popularity, like we're going to see in October with Swift."
"It sets a precedent," he said. "And I think it is something that other artists may consider now."
Bock however added: "There's maybe a handful of artists that could probably pull this off."
Zak Kuhn talks with Ralph Jaccodine, Professor at Berklee College Of Music
Tuesday, June 30, 2020
Zak Kuhn is a true New Yorker and former student of mine who went from Berklee College of Music to Nashville, of all places. It was there that Zak has carved out an amazing career including starting the Nashville Briefing (link here), a must read for the music industry. The Zak Kuhn Show is a his podcast series with some amazing players in the music industry... and for some reason, he asked me to share my thoughts. We had fun! Enjoy.
Mentoring for the Modern Musician Podcast with Ralph Jaccodine
Monday, April 8, 2019
#3 Management w/ Ralph Jaccodine
The Mentoring for the Modern Musician podcast, often featuring interviews with industry insiders who would never take your call, is designed to help cut the learning curve for musicians in and ever-changing music industry. Through in-depth topical discussions, the Scharff Brothers look to help musicians cultivate the skills necessary to forge a career as a creative artist. Pioneers in Virtual Artist Development, the Brothers steer each interview and conversation in an entertaining, informative, upbeat and completely original direction. In an ever-changing music industry, up to date and often cutting-edge information can make all the difference in a successful career. As the boys will tell you “You got this…We got your back.”
The Scharff Brothers guest on Mentoring for the Modern Musician in this episode is Ralph Jaccodine, Founder of Ralph Jaccodine Management and co-founder of Black Wolf Records. Assistant Professor at Berklee College of Music, Music Business/Management Department. Beginning with a young artist named Ellis Paul, then quickly followed by powerhouse performer Martin Sexton Ralph has, over his 25-year career, managed numerous brilliant artists. The list includes: Livingston Taylor, Shun Ng, The Push Stars, Flynn, Antje Duvekot, The Adam Ezra Group, and many more! We were thrilled to be able to spend some time picking his uniquely insightful brain!
MBJ Cut Time Podcast with Ralph Jaccodine
Saturday, March 30, 2019
Berklee College of Music's 'Music Business Journal' Podcast.
Exclusive interview with industry professional and Berklee professor Ralph Jaccodine discussing current industry management techniques and trends.
Exclusive interview with industry professional and Berklee professor Ralph Jaccodine discussing current industry management techniques and trends.
Newport Folk Festival stays fresh with younger and more diverse acts
Tuesday, July 19, 2022
Mavis Staples and Hozier perform during the "If I Had A Song" tribute set during day three of the 2019 Newport Folk Festival at Fort Adams State Park on July 28, 2019 in Newport, R.I. Mike Lawrie/Getty Images
By Molly McCaul
July 19, 2022
This summer, the Newport Folk Festival is in full swing to bring one of the country’s premiere music festivals back to New England. From Friday, July 22, through Sunday, July 24, Newport Folk will bring more than 50 artists to Rhode Island’s Fort Adams State Park for a weekend of live music.
As David Pruett, an ethnomusicologist who teaches at UMass Boston, explains, the festival started decades ago when founder George Wein experimented with adding an afternoon of folk musicians to his already-existing Newport Jazz Festival. Following the immense success of that afternoon, in 1959 Wein expanded it to a whole weekend of folk music.
An annual tradition ever since, the Newport Folk Festival is most well-known as the setting for the infamous 1965 set wherein Bob Dylan “went electric” for the first time — to the shock of folk purists. According to Ralph Jaccodine, a professor of music business and management at Berklee College of Music, that wasn’t the only surprise Newport has had in store for audiences over the years.
That 1965 set was “when Dylan freaked everybody out,” said Jaccodine, a music manager and promoter. “And then 40 years later, Jay [Sweet, Executive Producer and Director of Newport Festivals] books The Pixies, and they go acoustic.”
More than 60 years later, the Newport Festivals Foundation is still running both its annual Folk and Jazz Festivals. After pandemic-related cancellations, it’s the first time since 2019 that the Newport Folk Festival will have its typical three-day, full-capacity format. Jaccodine attributes the festival’s longevity to a “brand” built around the quality of acts they book — it has a tradition of selling out well before its full lineup is announced. “You know if you go to Newport Folk Festival and you don’t know who’s playing, it’s going to be great,” Jaccodine said.
A crucial part of the festival is its “spirit of collaboration,” as Amelia Meath, of The A’s, described it. The A’s, a collaborative project by Meath and Alexandra Sauser-Monnig, will make its live performance debut at Newport on Friday. Both are experienced musicians who have previously performed at the festival with their folk trio Mountain Man.
Getting to “[hop] on stage with a whole bunch of incredible musicians” and perform impromptu “without ever having a rehearsal” is, to Sauser-Monnig, part of what makes the folk tradition so unique.
“It's going to be kind of a wonderful collaborative review of all the things that had been released ... as well as seeing old friends and making new friends,” Meath said. “That's one of the true gifts of Newport is that, every time I go, I ended up singing so much more than I thought I was going to. And it's always a blast.”
The modern construction of folk music, as Pruett put it, goes hand in hand with the commercialization of music at the turn of the century. Once music became profitable, the style and image of what he called old-time music “was changed by folks who were writing those checks,” Pruett explained. “Old time had this stereotype of being music from the South, music among white people, music among those mountain-type folks.” The music was marketed under the pejorative term “hillbilly music.” Artists started curating their stage presence and musical styles to match the commercial mold, leading to “the whiteness of what these genres stood for,” says Pruett, while blues artists who didn’t fit were categorized as “race records.”
Even today, the Billboard Americana/Folk Charts are topped almost exclusively by white artists, a supermajority of whom are men. It takes scrolling to the 20th album on the year-end chart for 2021 until Black Pumas, 2020 Best New Artist Grammy nominees and recent Boston Calling performers, break the streak of an otherwise entirely white list with their self-titled 2019 full-length release.
Sheryl Crow, Maggie Rogers and Yola perform as part of the Collaboration during day two of the 2019 Newport Folk Festival at Fort Adams State Park on July 27, 2019 in Newport, R.I.
Mike Lawrie/Getty Images
The most prominent modern example of the impact of racialization in folk music is that of British band Mumford & Sons. The band has, on multiple occasions, faced backlash for their affiliation with far-right speakers like Jordan Peterson and Andy Ngo, most recently leading banjoist Winston Marshall to take time away from the band after he praised Ngo’s book. Frontman Marcus Mumford is slated to perform a charity benefit set in Newport as part of the festival’s after-show series on Saturday, July 23.
The element of Mumford’s music that Pruett was quick to highlight, though, is that the band represents “a full circle of world music history.” Combining Irish and Celtic influences, Appalachian folk tradition and the banjo — “which was an African instrument from the west coast of Africa, from Mali,” Pruett said — the band, without audiences even realizing, shows a result of centuries of musical migration.
Even beyond Mumford, this year’s Newport Folk Festival lineup poses an exciting opportunity for audiences. Jaccodine pointed to this year’s “bold” lineup that features non-traditional “folk” groups like The Roots, Dinosaur Jr. and The National.
“For folk music to live we need younger people, we need [a] diverse audience, we need to demonstrate that this quote-unquote ‘folk’ music can be done [by those artists] because it’s storytelling,” Jaccodine said.
Despite having such varied musical backgrounds, both exploring other genres through different collaborations many of the other artists featured on the lineup, Meath described The A's album Fruit as “a celebration of folk music that we’ve loved for years and years, particularly yodeling music.” But Meath added that a category like “folk,” like the genre label “pop,” doesn’t have strict boundaries: “Anything that originated from someone seems to be folk music at this point.”
Other notable names on the lineup include Arooj Aftab, a Brooklyn-based Pakistani vocalist who was nominated for Best New Artist at the Grammys in 2022 and won for Best Global Music Performance, a new category this year; Joy Oladokun, whose most recent release, In Defense of My Own Happiness, explores her identity as a queer Black woman in the United States; and alternative pop band Japanese Breakfast, whose frontwoman Michelle Zauner garnered buzz this year for her memoir “Crying in H Mart.”
July 19, 2022
This summer, the Newport Folk Festival is in full swing to bring one of the country’s premiere music festivals back to New England. From Friday, July 22, through Sunday, July 24, Newport Folk will bring more than 50 artists to Rhode Island’s Fort Adams State Park for a weekend of live music.
As David Pruett, an ethnomusicologist who teaches at UMass Boston, explains, the festival started decades ago when founder George Wein experimented with adding an afternoon of folk musicians to his already-existing Newport Jazz Festival. Following the immense success of that afternoon, in 1959 Wein expanded it to a whole weekend of folk music.
An annual tradition ever since, the Newport Folk Festival is most well-known as the setting for the infamous 1965 set wherein Bob Dylan “went electric” for the first time — to the shock of folk purists. According to Ralph Jaccodine, a professor of music business and management at Berklee College of Music, that wasn’t the only surprise Newport has had in store for audiences over the years.
That 1965 set was “when Dylan freaked everybody out,” said Jaccodine, a music manager and promoter. “And then 40 years later, Jay [Sweet, Executive Producer and Director of Newport Festivals] books The Pixies, and they go acoustic.”
More than 60 years later, the Newport Festivals Foundation is still running both its annual Folk and Jazz Festivals. After pandemic-related cancellations, it’s the first time since 2019 that the Newport Folk Festival will have its typical three-day, full-capacity format. Jaccodine attributes the festival’s longevity to a “brand” built around the quality of acts they book — it has a tradition of selling out well before its full lineup is announced. “You know if you go to Newport Folk Festival and you don’t know who’s playing, it’s going to be great,” Jaccodine said.
A crucial part of the festival is its “spirit of collaboration,” as Amelia Meath, of The A’s, described it. The A’s, a collaborative project by Meath and Alexandra Sauser-Monnig, will make its live performance debut at Newport on Friday. Both are experienced musicians who have previously performed at the festival with their folk trio Mountain Man.
Getting to “[hop] on stage with a whole bunch of incredible musicians” and perform impromptu “without ever having a rehearsal” is, to Sauser-Monnig, part of what makes the folk tradition so unique.
“It's going to be kind of a wonderful collaborative review of all the things that had been released ... as well as seeing old friends and making new friends,” Meath said. “That's one of the true gifts of Newport is that, every time I go, I ended up singing so much more than I thought I was going to. And it's always a blast.”
The modern construction of folk music, as Pruett put it, goes hand in hand with the commercialization of music at the turn of the century. Once music became profitable, the style and image of what he called old-time music “was changed by folks who were writing those checks,” Pruett explained. “Old time had this stereotype of being music from the South, music among white people, music among those mountain-type folks.” The music was marketed under the pejorative term “hillbilly music.” Artists started curating their stage presence and musical styles to match the commercial mold, leading to “the whiteness of what these genres stood for,” says Pruett, while blues artists who didn’t fit were categorized as “race records.”
Even today, the Billboard Americana/Folk Charts are topped almost exclusively by white artists, a supermajority of whom are men. It takes scrolling to the 20th album on the year-end chart for 2021 until Black Pumas, 2020 Best New Artist Grammy nominees and recent Boston Calling performers, break the streak of an otherwise entirely white list with their self-titled 2019 full-length release.
Mike Lawrie/Getty Images
The most prominent modern example of the impact of racialization in folk music is that of British band Mumford & Sons. The band has, on multiple occasions, faced backlash for their affiliation with far-right speakers like Jordan Peterson and Andy Ngo, most recently leading banjoist Winston Marshall to take time away from the band after he praised Ngo’s book. Frontman Marcus Mumford is slated to perform a charity benefit set in Newport as part of the festival’s after-show series on Saturday, July 23.
The element of Mumford’s music that Pruett was quick to highlight, though, is that the band represents “a full circle of world music history.” Combining Irish and Celtic influences, Appalachian folk tradition and the banjo — “which was an African instrument from the west coast of Africa, from Mali,” Pruett said — the band, without audiences even realizing, shows a result of centuries of musical migration.
Even beyond Mumford, this year’s Newport Folk Festival lineup poses an exciting opportunity for audiences. Jaccodine pointed to this year’s “bold” lineup that features non-traditional “folk” groups like The Roots, Dinosaur Jr. and The National.
“For folk music to live we need younger people, we need [a] diverse audience, we need to demonstrate that this quote-unquote ‘folk’ music can be done [by those artists] because it’s storytelling,” Jaccodine said.
Despite having such varied musical backgrounds, both exploring other genres through different collaborations many of the other artists featured on the lineup, Meath described The A's album Fruit as “a celebration of folk music that we’ve loved for years and years, particularly yodeling music.” But Meath added that a category like “folk,” like the genre label “pop,” doesn’t have strict boundaries: “Anything that originated from someone seems to be folk music at this point.”
Other notable names on the lineup include Arooj Aftab, a Brooklyn-based Pakistani vocalist who was nominated for Best New Artist at the Grammys in 2022 and won for Best Global Music Performance, a new category this year; Joy Oladokun, whose most recent release, In Defense of My Own Happiness, explores her identity as a queer Black woman in the United States; and alternative pop band Japanese Breakfast, whose frontwoman Michelle Zauner garnered buzz this year for her memoir “Crying in H Mart.”
What will concerts be like post-pandemic? Planned Palm Desert arena offers a glimpse
Sunday, September 27, 2020
Brian Blueskye, Palm Springs Desert Sun
Imagine this: It's a Friday night in 2022. Your favorite band is playing at a new arena in Southern California, and you're ready to enjoy live entertainment again.
Even if the COVID-19 pandemic has passed, you can expect the event to be different.
When you visit the concession stand for a hot dog, products will be grab-and-go, and the purchase won't require human interaction.
Sanitization and cleaning will be more thorough. The air circulation system will be equipped with new technology for ventilation.
These are just a few examples of the new design elements that Los Angeles-based Oak View Group is looking to implement in its venues — not just in Southern California but also in Seattle, Austin and New York. The coronavirus pandemic is leading to changes at many sports stadiums and live event arenas as they try to safely serve fans.
OVG's planned 10,000-seat arena, which will be built just outside the city of Palm Desert, offers a window into what the post-pandemic concert experience could be like.
"We need to understand there will always be the spread out there, even if it's on a much smaller scale, and there may be other viruses that we have to deal with as we become a global society," OVG CEO Tim Leiweke said. "We're ready for it."
What will concerts look like post-pandemic?
Live Nation, a Beverly Hills events promoter, is partnering to provide entertainment for OVG's Southern California arena. When asked about the type of acts that will perform, a spokesperson pointed to Cher, KISS, Ariana Grande, Jennifer Lopez, and Queen + Adam Lambert, who partnered with the company for nationwide arena tours in 2019.
Those tours drew an estimated 10,000 to 14,000 people. Experts are already speculating about the types of changes fans might see in concert arenas of that size.
Leiweke told Music Row in June that an Oak View Group task force is reviewing more than 180 products, solutions and technologies for seating, concourses, restrooms, concession stands and locker rooms not only for its own live entertainment facilities but others across the industry as well. Its Southern California arena also will be home to the Seattle Kraken's American Hockey League team.
'We're figuring out how we ultimately make our buildings safer," Lieweke told The Desert Sun. "We're spending millions of dollars more on all of our projects."
UCLA public health professor Dr. Richard Jackson described the SARS-CoV-2 strain as "fragile" and easy to destroy with alcohol.
"Your biggest risk is the guy next to you sneezing and breathing in your face, (and)going to the bar and being eight inches from somebody else's face whose got a runny nose, coughing and not wearing a mask," Jackson said.
For that reason, arenas could require face masks or temperatures checks upon entry, not only for attendees but for staff. They might keep a certain number of seats open between fans. Surfaces that you are likely to touch might be made of materials such as copper, which erodes the COVID-19 virus. Air might be recycled through high-quality filters and ultraviolet light.
And technology could be used to ensure social distancing. When it's time for beer, fans might pour it themselves through an automated system like the one developed by Illinois-based company Pour My Beer.
"The day where you reach into your wallet or pocket and put a bunch of dollar bills on a counter where a guy picks them up and puts them in with everyone else's money, I think those days are ending and we'll be paying with a card," Jackson said.
Jackson believes the virus will be eradicated by 2022, but added if COVID-19 is still widespread, it won't be safe to open arenas at all.
When will concerts happen again?
It's uncertain when concerts will be able to happen across the U.S.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom said in April that live music is unlikely to return until there's a COVID-19 vaccine. And Robert Redfield, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said this month that he doesn't expect a vaccine until the middle of 2021.
NFL teams such as the Cleveland Browns, Kansas City Chiefs, Miami Dolphins and the Dallas Cowboys have allowed some fans to attend games, but many teams are not allowing fans into the stadium until the third or fourth weeks of league play, or for the entire season.
Fans at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami are required to check-in at assigned gate entries, adhere to social distancing and park where they are assigned by an attendant. Staff are required to wear masks and have their temperature taken.
One of 16,000 fans who attended Kansas City's opening gameagainst the Houston Texans on Sept. 10 tested positive for COVID-19. Fans who sat near the attendee were alerted through the stadium's contact tracing system and are currently in quarantine.
Dr. Paula Cannon, professor of molecular microbiology & immunology at the University of Southern California, said these decisions must be made at a local level and reflect the risk of the population in those areas.
"I think the reality is, you can put a lower number of people in a stadium but if you believe they are always going to be socially distant, that's somewhat naïve," Cannon said. "But if you're in a state or a locale with a very low local transmission and can ensure that your audience wear masks, that's a huge reduction in risk."
Live music industry faces uncertain future
But live entertainment may already be permanently altered for years to come.
Ralph Jaccodine, an assistant professor of music and business management at Berklee College of Music in Boston, described the touring industry's infrastructure like the "Wizard of Oz": Arenas can operate successfully thanks to smaller venues that act as cogs churning out buzz and new artists.
Bigger stadiums book music acts based on projected ticket sales, when a band was last in the market, a new album or an increased amount of publicity and radio airplay.
"If the arena is going to guarantee all this money, they want to make sure they don't take a hit, so they're smart about it," Jaccodine said. "In order to fill up the arenas, they have their eyes on the clubs, the theaters, the colleges and what's going on there. Because they need to see their arenas with new bands."
But many small independently-owned venues across the country are either currently closed or at risk of closing. The Troubadour in West Hollywood, for example — known for helping to launch the careers of Elton John and the Eagles — has been closed since March. Christine Karayan, the club’s general manager, told the Los Angeles Times that its survival amid the pandemic is a "big if."
Jaccodine recalled attending a mentoring session with Live Nation's New England President Don Law, who said these smaller venues are integral to the entire touring industry infrastructure.
"(Law) was talking about how important it is to have healthy clubs," Jaccodine said. "You're not going to play at the Boston Garden if you haven't had five to 10 years of working the little clubs and the little theaters."
Still, Jaccodine is hopeful that the industry can recover, similar to professional sports.
"When a band like Nine Inch Nails comes to Boston, that's 10,000 hotel rooms, restaurants, and rental cars and it just it brings so much financial help to the city," Jaccodine said. "We're living in a strange world, but managers like me, booking agents and even musicians, we're a pretty positive and optimistic group."
Detoxicity Podcast Episode 24
Wednesday, September 2, 2020
Ralph Jaccodine has 4 decades of working in the music business working with artists as diverse as Bruce Springsteen, Rush, Kiss to Livingston Taylor, Martin Sexton and Ellis Paul. He started promoting concerts in Allentown, Pa. and at the University of Notre Dame. Then after a career in commercial real estate, he started an indie record label and artist management company. He is the founder of the Boston Managers Group, a 150+ professional organization. Ralph teaches full time on the faculty of Berklee College of Music in the Music Business/Management department.
This episode finds me and Ralph exploring teaching and mentorship, the things Ralph learned from the church, Mother Teresa and Bruce Springsteen, and the things that he tries to pass along to his students and his children. We also talk about the stresses involved with managing artists’ careers and how to keep the faith in uncertain times.
Boston Managers Group Meeting: The National Independent Talent Organization
Thursday, August 20, 2020
Hosted by Ralph Jaccodine of the Boston Manager’s Group, Ted Kurland (The Kurland Agency), Wayne Forte (Entourage Talent Associates), and Frank Riley (High Road Touring) discuss the state of the touring industry and the formation of The National Independent Talent Organization (NITO), for which they are founding members.
NITO is the ONLY organization actively lobbying congress on behalf of all independent booking AGENTS and independent MANAGERS... that means US!