Mapping China: Music - PRC Promotors & Tours

Most artists, big and small, have organized their China tours in collaboration with international and domestic promotors. 

Stadium Concert Promotors

Whereas foreign media and record companies are relatively unimportant, major international promotors have, after years of investments, finally started to make an impact.

• China West. Bringing James Brown, James Blunt, Black Eyed Peas, and Beyoncé (in collaboration with AEG). Unfortunately in 2008 two of its founding members left to Emma Ticketmaster, and the company petered out.
• Emma, Ticketmaster, and Emma Ticketmaster. Jonathan Krane set up Emma Entertainment after 2002, with the Rolling Stones concert in Shanghai as in 2005 as its first major success. In 2007 Krane poached two partners from China West (Adam Wilkes and Robb Spitzer), which brought in a Linkin Park stadium concert. In 2007 Ticketmaster bought Emma, it was rumored for 20 million US$. In the Olympic year of 2008, Emma Ticketmaster arranged concerts of Bjork (2 concerts in March) and Avril Lavigne (6 shows in September), but Oasis and Celine Dion were cancelled. Firstly, Bjork did the company no favor by shouting ‘Tibet! Tibet!’ during her song “Declare Independence”, an incident that is credited with prompting the Ministry of Culture to formulate stricter vetting for foreign performers. However it’s too easy to blame the government for Emma Ticketmaster’s demise (the company folded in 2010), because opportunism and miscalculations by Krane and naive expectations of the Chinese market by Ticketmaster (‘if only 1% of…’) are also to blame. China Music Radar writes: ‘Krane went to Chinese media saying Dion had bronchial problems and couldn’t perform, while telling Dion that the government wouldn’t issue her permits pre-Olympics. In an unprecedented move, the Government came out publically to refute Krane’s explanation to the artist. Government officials told media that they had indeed issues permits for the show. Word on the street was that ticket sales in Beijing had been very, very slow, and as Dion was being paid $5m for 3 shows, it was more sensible to try and get out of the slowest selling show.’
• Livenation. In 2005 Livenation entered the Chinese market through a joint venture with the massive state-owned cultural enterprise Gehua. However, progress has been slow, especially after Emma Ticketmaster debacle (in the US Ticketmaster merged into Livenation in 2010). Still the company brought the Eagles (2011), Bob Dylan (2011), Avril Lavigne (2011/2012, 2014) and Jason Mraz (2012), and was involved in the festival boom with the ill-fated Happy Valley Festival outside Beijing (sponsored by the local government). In 2011 Robb Spitzer was appointed as Managing Director of Live Nation China Concerts. In 2015 Maroon 5 was announced, but later cancelled. Livenation’s results in China are still mixed, however it did expand in Taiwan, where it announced a partnership with B'In Music in 2014.
• AEG. The company’s China operation is led by John Cappo, and since 2011 Adam Wilkes (ex-China West, ex-Emma Livenation) is Senior Vice President, Music and Touring, Asia. AEG moved into the Chinese market not much after Livenation. However only after it invested in two large scale venues it became the most influential foreign promotor. After the Beijing Olympics of 2008, AEG invested in the refurbishing of the Visa Master Center, which opened with Beyonce in 2009. Meanwhile the Mercedes-Benz Arena in Shanghai, which was part of the World Expo 2010, became the main venue for international stars. AEG’s vivacity may in part be the result of pressure that came with investing in these venues, and it is not clear how profitable the operation is. Some concerts were cancelled, others added extra dates due to heavy demand. Among others, AEG organized concerts in China of Jay Z, J Lo, Justin Bieber, Metallica (2012), Muse (2015), and Taylor Swift (2015). Bon Jovi was cancelled in late 2015.
• A2Live. Organizer of the EDM festival Storm has also organized China tours of Elton John, Kylie Minogue, Black Eyed Peas, James Brown, James Blunt, Pitbull (2013), Sarah Connor, Tiesto, Kanye West, and Incubus.

• Luopan罗盘 is a major PRC stadium concert organizer. They have long term relationships with stars such as Wang Feng and Phoenix Legend, and bid for organizing the Chinese tours of Hong Kong and Taiwan stars, including Jay Chou, Jacky Cheung and Eason Chan. Inspired by AEG, Luo Pan invested in a venue in Beijing, the Olympic Sports Center Gymnasium, but decided a few years later that this doesn’t work for the Chinese market.

Club Tour Promotors & Consultants

A number of festival organizers (see “PRC Festivals”), music-oriented websites (see “New Media”) and music companies (see “Music Companies”) can arrange concerts and tours in China.

In the final section I will give an overview of all these potential partners.

In this subsection I will discuss specialized promotors and international consultants.

• Split Works. Since 2006 Britton Archie Hamilton and company have organized concerts and tours of a broad range of Western artists, some at their festivals (Black Rabbit, Jue and Echo, see below). These artist include St. Vincent, Infadels, Talib Kweli, Faithless, Sonic Youth, Battles, Caribou, The Black Atlantic, Death Cab for Cutie, Gang of Four, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, We Are Wolves, MIKA, Kelis, Primitive Calculators, and Pennywise.

• Kaiguan. Next to the showcase festival Dongdong (see below), Kaiguan has been active in China organizing the tours of predominantly French-speaking musicians, including Matthieu Chedid (aka -M-), Magma, St.Lô, and Tiloun.
• New Noise is run by the Belgian Jef Vreys and based in Chengdu. New Noise has organized successful tours of postrock bands such as Mono, Mogwai and This Will Destroy You through China.
• China Music Dish is run by Canadian Eric de Fontenay and based in New York. It was involved in Chinese tours of Soulier, Eagle I Stallian and Jessica Stuart Few.
• Miro China is a Swiss company that focuses mostly on exporting Chinese bands to Europe, under its China Drifting label. However, over the years they have also introduced a number of European bands and DJs to China, including Ronin, Bubble Beatz and a tour of the Swiss label Hula Honeys.
• Wu Promotions has been around for decades and specializes in classical music, modern dance and jazz. They can provide access to state-owned opera houses, theaters and performing arts centers. These state-owned institutions have budget to invest in programs, but can be very conservative and hard to persuade. Wu Promotions has built connections since the 1990s, and has done tours from the Vienna Strauss Festival Orchestra in China in 1992 to the Osiris Trio in 2015.
• Genjing is a record label, focusing on punk and other underground sounds. They have organized collaboration between Chinese and Western musicians, and Nevin Domer can put you into contact with the right people.

Live House Franchises

This festival boom attracted investors to the music industry, and this has triggered interest in the live music scene in general. Companies such as Mao Livehouse (excluding the Beijing Drum Tower venue, due to internal conflicts), Modern Sky (Modernskylab), and Demo Live have announced plans to build franchises of live venues. However, after the Shanghai stampede of late 2014, permits are more difficult (i.e. expensive) to come by and plans are moving forward slower than anticipated. Potentially, this development can make national tours much easier to organize, as there is no nation-wide network through which live houses exchange information and programming.

See the section “Educational Institutions” for information about college tours.

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