Brian O'Connell PRESIDENTOF COUNTRY TOURING LIVE NATION

POWER MOVEDeveloped country music "season ticket" for fans, playing a huge role in country's live success.

When it comes toartist develop- ment and building headlining ca- reers, country is clearly the hot spot of the live music business, and Brian O'Connell is country music's top tal- ent buyer. Handling six headlining tours in 2012 while launching the Watershed Festival at the Gorge in George, Wash., O'Connell also kept busy setting up nine more tours, plus another new festival, for this year. Live Nation country tours mounted in 2012 included Rascal Flatts, Brad Paisley, Toby Keith, Jason Aldean and the amphitheater runs of Miranda Lambert and Lady Antebellum. Four of those performers- Aldean, Lady A, Paisley and Rascal Flatts-ended up among the top 25 tours of the year, grossing a combined $140 million, according to Billboard Boxscore. O'Connell works his client chain like so: In Aldean's first year as a headliner, 2011, he grossed $28 million and sold about 800,000 tickets. During his second year, with Luke Bryan in the second slot, Aldean upped his take to $40 million and nearly 1 million tickets sold. This year, Aldean added sold -out stadiums to his route, while Bryan will play amphitheaters on his own headlining tour. O'Connell's development of the Megaticket promotion-basically a "season ticket" for country fans in a given market, so they can hold onto the same seat for anywhere between four and 10 shows-played a huge role in country's live success. The Megaticket "exposes the fans to more acts and creates a sense of community, which is what I preach every day," O'Connell says. "We want our new acts to play in front of as many people as they possibly can." -Ray Waddell

Chris Roland Tsakalakis Swenson PRESIDENT, STUBHUB CO-FOUNDER/MANAGING DIRECTOR POWER MOVE POWER MOVE @CTSAK MUSIC AND MEDIA CONFERENCE Inked deal with AEG SXSW attendance up that helps legitimizethe more than 22%; brand @SXSW secondary ticketer. Secondary ticket sellers probably get even less respect than the late expands to Las Vegas. Rodney Dangerfield. But under the leadership of Chris Tsakala- The South by Southwest conference in Austin-celebrating its 27th kis, StubHub struck a deal with sports/entertainment powerhouse year in March-has become the go -to event for three major indus- AEG that will further legitimize his company as the most powerful tries: film, music and digital. And the leadership of managing di- secondary ticketer in the . rector Roland Swenson has been a key constant of SXSW. The new partnership, announced in November 2012, adds tickets "I describe South by Southwest as a promotional tool for cre- from eBay-owned StubHub to listings on AEG's AXS ticketing service, ative people, and the companies they work with, to advance their beginning in second-quarter 2o13. StubHub will also become the office careers," Swenson says. "That's what we set out to do from the be- fan -to -fan marketplace for more than 30 AEG facilities. Additionally, the ginning, and we're able to provide that to most of our participants." pact integrates global buildings as StubHub expands internationally. Indeed, SXSW continues to help raise the profile of up-and-coming "We see this as an opportunity for us not only to partner with a artists and serves as a platform for veteran acts and music executives large player in the entertainment industry, but also to increase the delivering highlybuzzed keynotes. Lastyear's festival showcased more presence that we have with concerts," Tsakalakis says. than 2,200 acts, with547 of them coming from 49 countries. SXSW has Ticket sales from concerts account for about 25% of StubHub's also grown in attendance through challenging times-registration hit business in the United States, with sports leading at 7o%. Ticket re- 60,047 in 2012,a notable jump from 49,126 the previous year. selling remains a sensitive subject throughout the music industry, "We've ridden out a lot of cycles in economic downturns," Sw- even as concert sales make up StubHub's fastest -growing division. enson says, citing the 2008 financial meltdown. "When the in- "Last year, the value of concert tickets sold on StubHub grew 66% dustry was freaking, we held on and continued to thrive. [In bad versus the previous year," Tsakalakis says, adding that the spike was times], an event like ours can be even more important for people to no accident. "We very much focused on increasing our awareness." get together and discuss ideas and trends, and look for new ways He points to StubHub's Ticket Oak advertising campaign that fea- to do business." tures an animated tree as the company's mascot. "We really focused SXSW will further expand its brand this summer with SXSW V2V, on outlets that would get to ticket buyers." a two-day event at Las Vegas' Cosmopolitan in mid -August. "It's StubHub expanded into the in 2011 and plans mov- going to be focused on start-ups and raising investment for new ing further into Europe later this year. "What's interesting about the companies," Swenson says, adding that V2V has been well -received U.K. and most of Europe is that the majority of what we sell there is within the music industry. "Considering how far in the future it is," concert tickets," he says. -Mitchell Peters he says, "we're happy with the response so far." -Mitchell Peters

BRIAN O'CONNELL PHOTOGRAPH BY ROBBY KLEIN FEBRUARY 16, 2013I WWW.BILLBOARD.BIZ 0