Live Nation, the largest concert promoter in the world, is ceasing business in Russia in light of the country’s ongoing invasion of the Ukraine, the company announced Wednesday.
“Live Nation joins the world in strongly condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. We will not promote shows in Russia, and we will not do business with Russia,” Live Nation said in a statement to Rolling Stone. “We’re in the process of reviewing our vendors so we can cease work with any and all Russian-based suppliers.”
Live Nation joins the world in condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and applauds all the musicians who are using their voices to promote peace. pic.twitter.com/Kgp0TQHxNw
— Live Nation (@LiveNation) March 2, 2022
Live Nation is one of the latest in the live music industry to publicly denounce Russia’s actions. Earlier this week, the venue developer Oak View Group — which is also the parent company of live music trade publication Pollstar — announced that it would not do business with Russia, nor would it serve Russian brands at its venues. Individual touring acts including Green Day, Louis Tomlinson, Yungblud and Franz Ferdinand all canceled upcoming gigs in Russia.
Beyond live music, Live Nation was joined today by Spotify, which said that it is closing the company’s Russia offices indefinitely, adding that it “restricted the discoverability of shows owned and operated by Russian state-affiliated media” and “removed all RT and Sputnik content from Spotify in the EU and other markets.”
“We are deeply shocked and saddened by the unprovoked attack on Ukraine,” a Spotify spokesperson said in a statement to Rolling Stone. “Our first priority over the past week has been the safety of our employees and to ensure that Spotify continues to serve as an important source of global and regional news at a time when access to information is more important than ever.”
Outside of music, major corporations such as Disney and Warner Brothers said earlier this week that they’d halt releases of their films in Russia, while Apple paused selling its products in the country.
See Spotify’s full statement below:
We are deeply shocked and saddened by the unprovoked attack on Ukraine. Our first priority over the past week has been the safety of our employees and to ensure that Spotify continues to serve as an important source of global and regional news at a time when access to information is more important than ever.
In response to the crisis, we have taken several steps. We have closed our office in Russia indefinitely and we are providing individual support to our personnel in the region as well as our global community of Ukrainian employees.
Our team has reviewed thousands of pieces of content since the start of the war, and has restricted the discoverability of shows owned and operated by Russian state-affiliated media. Earlier this week, we also took the additional step of removing all RT and Sputnik content from Spotify in the EU and other markets. Today, we launched a global guide on the Spotify platform to provide our users around the world with trusted news. We think it’s critically important to try to keep our service operational in Russia to allow for the global flow of information.
Our employees around the world are committed to helping people affected by the war in Ukraine and we are matching their donations two to one to support local humanitarian efforts. We are exploring additional steps that we can take and will continue to do what is in the best interest of our employees and our listeners.
From Rolling Stone US
