SAN DIEGO, CA. & NEW YORK, NY. (Top40 Charts/ Eventful) - Eventful and Billboard today announced that five top musical acts are in the running to win the first annual 'Eventful Fans' Choice Award' for the Best Concert Tour of the Year. The finalists are Madonna, Bon Jovi, Bruce Springsteen,
Kenny Chesney and The Police. Fans across the country can vote for the artist they want to win the award. As touring becomes essential to an artist's career, Eventful and the Billboard Touring Conference and Awards want to involve the fans in deciding which artist put on the best concert tour of 2008.
Fans can help their favorite artist win the award by logging on to: https://eventful.com/fanschoice. The artist with the most 'demands' through Eventful's 'Demand' service will win the award. The contest will be promoted to music fans online and in emails via Billboard and Eventful. In addition, Ticketmaster, the world's leading live entertainment ticketing and marketing company will promote the contest to fans who purchased tickets to the five tours in the running for the award. Eventful and Ticketmaster (NASDAQ:TKTM) recently announced a strategic marketing partnership.
The winner will be announced at the Billboard Touring Awards reception on November 20, 2008 at The Roosevelt Hotel in NYC. The awards reception will provide the culmination of the fifth annual Billboard Touring Conference, uniting today's top touring professionals to network, do business and discuss the current state of the industry.
Eventful Demand has transformed the way tours get routed by enabling artists to make the best decisions about where to perform, based upon where they are in demand by their fans. Over 50,000 musicians use Eventful Demand to empower their fans to shape their tours. Along with MySpace, YouTube and iTunes, Eventful has become an essential part of the online marketing toolkit for artists and their management.
'While the Billboard Touring Awards have always been determined primarily by the Billboard Boxscore charts, the entire touring industry knows that it is the passion of fans that fills venues,' says Ray Waddell, Billboard's executive director of content and programming, touring and live entertainment. 'That passion is very often ignited and spread through the Internet, and we're excited to add the Eventful Fans' Choice Award to our event this year.'
'We're excited to work with Billboard to honor the leading touring acts of 2008,' said Eventful CEO Jordan Glazier. 'It's fitting that we're giving the fans the power to decide who wins this award by using Eventful Demand which is also used by tens of thousands of artists to empower millions of fans to influence where they perform.'
'Clearly, without the fans, none of us in the industry would have a business,' said Eric Korman, president, Ticketmaster. 'Providing the fans a voice to directly influence this award is a great recognition of that simple fact, and we are happy to play our part to help Eventful and Billboard reach as many concert ticket fans as possible.'
For more information about the 5th annual Billboard Touring Conference & Awards please visit www.billboardevents.com.
* For registration information: Brittany Davies, 646.654.4643 or [email protected]
* For press credentials: Lee Rothchild, at 212-981-5124 or [email protected]
