Ever wondered what it takes to bring a massive Sphere residency from blueprint to opening night? In this episode, Billboard On The Record pulls back the curtain with Head of Sphere Studios Carolyn Blackwood and Head of Booking Josephine Vaccarello to walk us through the high-stakes world of planning, engineering, and executing one of live music’s most ambitious venue experiences. Get insider access to the strategies, challenges and innovations that make Sphere residencies a game-changer.
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Billboard On The Record is a podcast in partnership with SickBird Productions.
Kristin Robinson:
Hello and welcome to ‘On the Record,’ a new music business podcast from Billboard and SickBird Productions. I’m your host, Kristin Robinson, and each week on the show we will be inviting you in to conversations that I have with executives, artists and journalists about the music business all day, every day. Today is no different. For today’s show we are actually not in Los Angeles at our usual studio. We are live at Sphere in Las Vegas, and more specifically, we are backstage at Sphere where I’m going to be joined by two key executives at the venue, Josephine Vaccarello and Carolyn Blackwood. Josephine Vaccarello is the head of booking for MSG Entertainment, so she does Sphere as well as a bunch of other venues including MSG, including Radio City, all of the above, she does it all. And we’re also joined by Carolyn Blackwood who is the head of Sphere Studios, which does a lot of the visual and immersive elements of Sphere. Together, we’re going to talk through all of the nitty gritty details that go into booking key residencies at Sphere. From U2 to Backstreet Boys to Anyma and everywhere in between. So with all of that being said, please welcome to the show, Josephine Vaccarello and Carolyn Blackwood. I’m so glad that you guys are here. When did y’all both get here?
Carolyn Blackwood:
Well, I’ve been here all week, but I’ve been back and forth from LA, so I’ve spent a lot of time here in the last month in particular.
Josephine Vaccarello:
Yeah, I got here on Saturday.
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