10/02/2020
MAJOR TOURING BANDS AND LONG BEACH? WHAT???
Lost opportunities for local artist exposure...
Many folks remember a time when major artists performed at the Long Beach Arena and other smaller local venues. The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, David Bowie, Eric Capton and many, many other huge artists performed here and then it almost completely stopped...
Over the last few years I've had the discussion with many fellow musicians. We have so many great local bands and artists -- one of the things that we don't have often is opportunities to show-off our artists to really large audiences made up of enthusiasts from outside Long Beach.
One of the main reasons is that over the last few decades relatively few top-drawing artists perform in Long Beach. It's not that they don't want to perform in Long Beach but in most cases really big acts that are performing in the LA area are legally barred from performing anywhere else within 30, 50 or even 150 miles of their contracted venue -- they are subject to a common paragraph in their contract called "The Radius Clause" which prohibits them from performing anywhere within a certain number of miles from a venue -- for several months.
It was not always this way but it is now -- and as most local artists know, one of the biggest breaks an unsigned artist can get is an opportunity to perform in front of a really large, focused-audience along with acts that have national or international popularity. Not only can they bring in an audience but they will also attract industry professionals -- record company personnel, talent agents, managers, promoters, venue-operators and various other folks who may be looking for a new face, voice, sound, etc and may be able to get a local unsigned artist to the next level.
Anyway this is one of the big challenges Long Beach artists face today... there are ways to meet this challenge but they often require leaving Long Beach.
Below is a 2017 article that gives a bit of background about the Radius Clause and variations.
https://www.laweekly.com/how-the-music-industry-uses-a-pervasive-secret-weapon-to-keep-bands-from-freely-touring/
The practice has long been standard, but it has increased in scope as a handful of corporations have seized more control.
