The world’s second-largest live entertainment giant, AEG Presents, has officially announced pay cuts across the company.
According to a memo from CEO Jay Mariano, which was obtained by Variety, the company will implement a combination of layoffs, furloughs, and paycuts. The extent of the layoffs were unclear, though Marciano referenced a prior memo from president Dan Beckerman regarding cutbacks and acknowledged that this was a difficult decision among the pandemic and ongoing mass protests.
Marciano noted that while “there’s never a good time to go through what we are going through as a company,” the current state of the world “is an especially difficult one.”
“We did not come to today’s decisions lightly,” Marciano said in a statement. “During the last few months we kept our company intact to ensure that those of you who would be the most affected would have the best safety net we could provide. While it’s small solace, I see this as a testament to the culture that exists at AEG and the important role you have played in building this environment.”
AEG isn’t alone; entertainment companies across the industry have made the difficult decision to cutback on revenue, including the industry’s leading giant Live Nation Entertainment. Live Nation, as well as its subsidiary Ticketmaster, announced furloughs, as well as secondary ticket sites StubHub and Vivid Seats.
At this point, health professionals are not expecting live events to fully return until 2021, with some festivals and events planned for late 2020. In the meantime, Live Nation suggested testing crowdless shows and drive-in movie theater concerts as a handful of states test small social-distant gigs.
Marciano went on to note that “nobody in our business – or any business – could have predicted where we would be today.”
“I wish I could tell you when it will be safe to reopen,” he said. “At present, it appears large-scale events – the core of our business – will be the last to reopen. We will continue to monitor this daily, but the health and safety of our employees, artists and fans remains our highest priority. Simply put, we will reopen when we are confident that it is safe to do so.”
