After a run of successful concert tours for emerging artists tied to its Alt Nation and The Highway channels, SiriusXM is touring three emerging artists from its Coffee House channel this summer.
Joshua Radin, Rachael Yamagata and Brandon Jenner hit the road earlier this month for a 26-city tour that includes stops at The Warehouse (Aug. 5) in Fairfield, Connecticut, Irving Plaza (Aug. 9) in New York, and Paradise Rock Club (Aug. 10) in Boston. The tour is being promoted by Live Nation's Michael Yerke and includes a number of stops at House of Blues and Fillmore venues.
"These tours are an extension of what we're doing on the radio, extending our channel brands from the airwaves to concert venues," says Steve Blatter, senior VP and general manager of music programming at SiriusXM. "We view it as a way to take a national platform and connect with our subscribers on a local level."
Earlier this year, SiriusXM toured Pop Etc., The Moth & the Flame and Banners as part of Alt Nation's Advancement Placement Tour, named after the channel's show for new music hosted by Alt Nation’s Jeff Regan.
"Alt Nation has an amazing track record with identifying, developing and breaking news artists," he says, noting that other channels have gotten into touring, citing a Spring 2017 run by Steve Moakler, Drew Baldridge and Smithfield as part of the Highway Finds tour, SiriusXM's popular country music channel.
Blatter says SiriusXM chooses artists for the tour "we really believe in long-term and are currently supporting with airplay to develop their careers." He points to SiriusXM's success with MISSIO, which got behind the band's track "Middle Fingers" earlier this year and contacted the band's management about an Advanced Placement Tour with Coast Modern, 888 and Sundara Karma.
"Even though they had no plans to go on tour at the time, it made a lot of sense for them to go on the road because of the success they were having on Alt Nation," he says.
Throughout the tour, SiriusXM holds ticket giveaways and geo-targets emails to promote individual shows. "And we're doing more than just the channel-branded tours," Blatter says. "Over the past two years, we've worked with Live Nation to present over 500 concerts across the country."
SiriusXM was the presenting sponsor for Krewella's upcoming tour and has supported residencies for Billy Joel and Santana. "It helps us bring the relationship between the artists and listeners full circle," Blatter says.
