Nederland Concerts Chapter 1
PHK BUSINESS (11e) VIDEO SERIES FINAL (10/11/10)
EDITOR: A. Grazioso
SEGMENT: Chap 1: Nederlander Concerts
(Exploring Business & Economics)
VERSION: Final (10/11/10)
Page 1 of 3
As of: 2/12/16
Interviewees
Alex Hodges
Chief Operating Officer
Adam Friedman
Chief Executive Offer
Jamie Lobe
VP, marketing
Alex Hodges: I’m Alex Hodges, I’m COO of Nederlander Concerts in Los Angeles, and we’re a
concert promoting company, we manage and operate concert venues such as the award-winning
Greek Theatre in L.A. In my role, I have a talent buying team, and I have a marketing team, we
have a general manager of the building, we have a substantial team of people who take care of
the fans, take care of the artist, look after the shows that we buy. We’re in a competitive market,
and it’s pretty interesting what we do.
Adam Freeman: My name is Adam Freeman, I’m the Chief Executive Officer of Nederlander
Concerts, which is part of the Nederlander Organization. We’re based in Los Angeles, and I
oversee the day-to-day management of the company and its growth and development. The key
areas or departments of the company include talent-buying and marketing, operations, finance,
and business development. We have sixty full-time employees, and then we employ during the
summer seasons of our outdoor amphitheaters, hundreds of what we call seasonal employees
who help us run each of the venues that we operate throughout California.
AF: Nederlander Organization started with a single theater in nineteen-twelve under the
leadership of David Nederlander. David ultimately had four sons, each of them continued in the
theatrical business through the thirties, forties, right through the sixties, and through today. But,
at the end of the sixties, Jimmy Nederlander who is my direct report started what is now known
as the outdoor amphitheater business.
AF: The Los Angeles market is one of the two biggest markets in the concert industry, it’s L.A.
and New York, there are other great markets, don’t get me wrong, but these are the two that
drive. These are the two that are on most top talent’s touring or routing schedules. The reason
for it is that if you make it in those markets, the media will grab onto it. It will help you with the
balance of your tour. Those markets are more affluent than other markets. There’s typically a
greater yield for the artist, a greater set of financial guarantees being offered to those artists.
Many people think the only consumer that we have, or the only client that we have, I should say,
is the ticket buyer. But, in fact we also have a client in the artist, and their management, and
their representation. If they’re not happy with their experience, if they don’t see a relatively full
house, if they don’t experience a stage that is put together correctly and produced correctly so
that their presentation is state of the art, they won’t come back.
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Nederland Concerts Chapter 1
PHK BUSINESS (11e) VIDEO SERIES FINAL (10/11/10)
AF: So, the business model is not to become nation-wide or international overnight, it is to be
successful in what we do. We are expert in the small to mid-size base. We are expert at
promoting and acquiring top headline talent. We are uniquely qualified to bring some of the
biggest artists into some of the smallest venues that they play on tour. Examples of that: two
nights of Dave Matthews at the Greek Theatre in L.A. Could have sold out a stadium, played a
six thousand seater for us. The Eagles at a forty-five hundred seat venue in Santa Barbara, along
with Rod Stewart, and Jimmy Buffett, and Dave Matthews, and Pearl Jam, etcetera.
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As of: 2/12/16
AF: So, we continuously focus on the small to mid-size space because the economic model is
more viable. Less seats to sell at an aggregate higher ticket price because the artist can command
it, and because the fan is willing to pay it
Jamie Lobe: My name is Jamie Lobe and I am Vice President of Marketing for Nederlander
Concerts. Basically what that entails is I have a group, a marketing team that is responsible for
marketing at four very noteworthy venues: The Greek Theatre in Los Angeles, the Santa Barbara
Bowl, the San Jose Civic, and The Grove of Anaheim. In addition to that, we also promote and
so we then market the shows that we book. So, yeah… we just bring music to people.
AF: Los Angeles is a very important market for us. Not only because of the consumer and the
media, Every major talent agency has at least one of their top two headquarters, either New York
or L.A., or it is the sole headquarters for most of those talent agencies. So, for us being located
here, Oftentimes it’s the start of the conversation: what are you doing in L.A., and if you’re
playing for Nederlander in L.A., why don’t you play for us in the other markets that you’re going
through where we either have facilities, or can promote the show for you at a third-party venue
because we have experience in those markets.
JL: whenever we do surveys, the number one reason why people don’t go to a show, so they
say, is they don’t know about it. Which is infuriating. But, you know, we just try to make that
percentage of people who say that they don’t go to a show because they don’t know about it
smaller, and smaller, and smaller.
Alex Hodges: We promote bands of every level… they’re kind of on the way up, they’ve been
around a long time, they’re sort of new sometimes… from James Taylor to Flogging Molly.
What happens is a band starts their road to stardom, and they work clubs, and they get an album
out, and after a period of time, they grow in their fan base, and one of the prestigious venues for
them to play would be the Greek Theatre. The famous concerts of Neil Diamond of “Hot August
Nights” was amazing. Stevie Ray Vaughan, who I managed, Stevie Ray while on “Double
Trouble” came into the Greek Theatre many times. The Allman Brothers Band, Bonnie Raitt,
Los Lobos, MGMT, Silver Sun Pickups are coming soon, Thirty Seconds to Mars, The Boss,
Bruce Springsteen has been here. So many great artists, I just can’t even name them all.
JL: It still comes back to: who is the artist, and who is their audience? Then, the scope becomes
narrower because you don’t necessarily have to worry where everybody else is, you just have to
worry where those people are, and how do you find them?
Alex Hodges: We have competitions, so the agent, the manager’s calling us, we’re calling the
agent and managers… sort of on an equal basis in trying to find a date. Then we have to put a
dollar equation to it, and make an offer. So we stand at risk on the show when we buy a show.
Submitted for review by NKP Media Inc.
Nederland Concerts Chapter 1
PHK BUSINESS (11e) VIDEO SERIES FINAL (10/11/10)
Alex Hodges: At the end of the day, the band and the promoter, the artist and the promoter have
something in common: they want a successful night. To have a successful night, the fans have a
great time, you sell out or you do the numbers that you were talking about doing, everybody gets
paid and you go home . One of my jobs as COO of Nederlander Concerts is to supervise,
manage, motivate a team of people. There’s nothing that I can do by myself without having a
team to put the shows on sale, to market the shows, to discuss the ticket price, to try to get some
sense of where we… what we feel is right for a given band. What’s on the ticket is the name of
the band, what’s on the ticket is the date, what’s on the ticket is the price. All of that changes
every single show that we do.
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As of: 2/12/16
We have to think of the fans we have to think of the band’s fans, we have to think of the agents,
the managers, the artist, how they’re treated every night.
Adam Freeman: The company is still one of the few family run entertainment companies
worldwide. We’re not trying to be necessarily a national player, or an international player.
There’s an incredible legacy that was established, starting in nineteen-twelve, and the company’s
brand is as strong as ever, both on the theatrical and the concert side.
[END]
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