The Annual Francis Davis Jazz Critics Poll — Mid-Year

Will Call War Ticket agents strike out at scalpers over fan club ticket fraud Linda Deckard, Venues Today, June 30, 2006 The war between scalpers and musicians took a heated turn in May, when veteran rocker Tom Petty exercised what his management called unprecedented action against ticket re-sellers. When Petty’s management found out that 460…

David Bowie ‘75’ Pop-Up Stores Open in New York and London  By Jem Aswad, Variety, October 25, 2021 In the five years since his death from cancer in January 2016, David Bowie’s estate has kept fans captivated with an extensive, tastefully curated series of reissues that have presented a vast amount of material in a…

You Are The DJ: Custom-CD Web Sites Allow Music Lovers to Create Their Own Mixes By Tom Gogola, DIRECT Magzine, November, 1999  If true one-to-one marketing is based on treating a particular customer differently based on data collected during an interaction, then CustomDisc is a true market leader. The company doesn’t merely customize its product offerings,…

Ticketing Platform LYTE Raises $33M in Series B Funding Round from Investors Including Quincy Jones Murray Stassen, Music Business Worldwide, December 17, 2020 Ticketing technology platform Lyte has raised $33 million in a Series B round, a combination of equity and debt. The latest round brings Lyte’s fundraising total to $48m. Lyte states that the…

This year marks the first time I have been invited to participate in the Downbeat Magazine Annual Critics Poll (their 73rd!). I barely consider myself a journalist and certainly not a critic but it was really a hoot to be asked to to this. Information about the issue with the results can be found here.

Lyte’s Lawrence Peryer on Live Music’s Return by Roy Trakin on XLIVE.com, May 24, 2022 When we last spoke to Lawrence Peryer, the 25-year industry vet who serves as Chief Strategy Officer for Lyte, the reservation technology ticketing platform, almost a year ago to the day, there was optimism in the live music business returning…