The AvA Connection

🐝 The Weekly Buzz

1) Global music industry hit a “hiccup” in 2024 according to Goldman Sachs.

Growth in 2023: 15.6%

Growth in 2024: 6.2%

Predictions below by 2035:

• Global Music revenue will double to $200 billion

• “Emerging markets” share of streaming will increase from 8% to 14%

Other highlights:

• Tix revenue grew 76% the last 5 years, despite a 50% increase in tix prices.

• Average US consumer = $69/month on video subscriptions, “only” $14 on music.

2) Apollo Global is the latest private equity firm to launch a sports fund. $5 billion to be exact.

• For Hollywood: it’s another step in the sports-entertainment convergence. The same firms financing your favorite docuseries or streamer are now owning the teams the docs are about.

• Last year the NFL approved up to a 10% external ownership.

• U.S. pro sports teams are riding a rocket the last decade: NFL squads are worth over 4× more, MLB 4x, MLS 4.6×, NBA franchises are up roughly 6×–10×, and NHL almost 4×.

• Media‑rights spend of major sports is also up 122% in the U.S. the last decade.

3) Vinyl, CD’s, and Cassette’s have been excluded from the new US import tariffs. The tax has been added to 1.36 billion shipments of product so far, but music formats are now classified as “information materials” and will no longer be subject to the fees. Swift action just in time for Taylor..

4) Winners of the Summer Box Office:

💼 AvA Job Board

Our new job board features 120+ early career roles in Entertainment:

Some standouts:

💼 Music Programming Coordinator - SiriusXM - Apply Here

💼 Media Manager - Paramount Pictures - Apply Here

💼 Creative Marketing Strategist - Fanatics - Apply Here

💼 Music Communications Coordinator - Wasserman - Apply Here

💼 Studio Operations Manager - Warner Bros. Discovery - Apply Here

💼 Sync Coordinator - The Orchard - Apply Here

💼 Event Production Specialist - Madison Square Garden Entertainment Corp. - Apply Here

💼 Social Media Producer (LA Galaxy) - AEG - Apply Here

💼 Creative Production Assistant (Communications) - UTA - Apply Here

💼 TV News Assistant - CAA - Apply Here

💼 Media Strategist - Tubi - Apply Here

💼 Talent Producer - NFL - Apply here

🎒 Fall 2025 Development Intern (Screen Gems) - Sony Pictures - Apply Here

📞 The Call Log: Sam Summers, Founder of Hinterland Music Festival

Sam Summers is the owner, director, and booking agent of Hinterland Music Festival, a camping festival in the middle of the Iowa countryside. Sam is widely regarded as having revamped festival culture in the Midwest with Hinterland, a three-day festival just south of Des Moines.

In the near decade since the first festival in 2015, Hinterland has brought artists like Zach Bryan, Willie Nelson, Noah Kahan, and Chappell Roan to Iowa. Sam leveraged the economics of the festival to make competitive offers to get artists in Iowa that might not have otherwise come through standard tour routing and continues to grow and adapt Hinterland to make it the best experience it can be for festival-goers, staff, and artists alike.

Our conversation is below and there is something to learn for everybody, especially for those who finds themselves in a less traditional market or set of circumstances.

AvA: You started your career booking small shows at Iowa State University to building Hinterland into a destination festival. What was the “holy sh*t, this is actually working” moment?

Summers: Being in Iowa, I’ve spent most of my career trying to convince agents that this market is worth routing their bands through. Once we launched Hinterland, the economics of a festival finally gave me the leverage to make competitive offers and get those artists here. From the beginning, we put a huge emphasis on making sure the artist experience is just as good as the fan experience. If an artist has an incredible time backstage, that energy always shows onstage — and the fans feel it. At the end of the day, my job is connecting fans and artists in a way that works for both, and that’s when I knew it was clicking. 

AvA: Hinterland doesn’t feel like a copy-paste of any festival out there. Rare these days. What’s your secret sauce for keeping it uniquely Iowa while still pulling national buzz?

Summers: I’ve always been drawn to patterns — recognizing connections where they aren’t obvious. Curating a festival is just a bigger version of that puzzle. I don’t like to force a theme or hit people over the head with a concept, but I do like to find threads that tie artists together in ways that feel natural. That’s how a lineup starts to make sense in my head.

I’m also heavily influenced by the era I grew up in — late ’90s and early ’00s hardcore and emo — so I’m always looking for subtle ways to weave that DNA into Hinterland.  

AvA: Every festival has war stories. What’s the craziest behind-the-scenes scramble you’ve had to pull off to keep the show alive?

Summers: Our very first year, we had to move the entire festival 25 miles away — three days before gates opened — because a 500-year flood wiped out our original site. Luckily, we had a backup location, so we made the call and just went for it. Behind the scenes, it was total chaos — but somehow the team pulled it off. I’ll never forget Alex from Edward Sharpe getting onstage and saying he never would have guessed the festival was supposed to be somewhere else. That moment really cemented that we’d found our new home. 

AvA: Lineups say a lot about taste as well as timing. What’s one booking you took a risk on that paid off big?

Summers: Anytime you headline an artist before they have headlined other festivals you get crickets. You really have to be confident in those plays, but its the only way festivals like Hinterland can exist. I have to take chances on artists before they have demonstrated their ability to headline. We offered Tyler Childers one of his first festival headlines in 2020/21. I was very confident in the offer but you still wonder if you are too early but fortunately for us, that year sold out and it was one of the best sets we will ever have.

AvA: Why will festivals be thriving in 10 years? 

Summers: Festivals are a lot like theme parks — if people have an amazing time while they’re there, they’ll keep chasing that feeling long after they leave. The music is the centerpiece, but it’s really about the whole experience: the setting, the people, the moments you can’t replicate anywhere else. I know when I go to a festival like Coachella, I think about it all year.

AvA: What is one piece of advice you have for someone early in their careers? 

Summers: Don’t take things too personally. This industry is full of big personalities and high-stress situations, and not every conversation is going to go perfectly. I’ve had plenty I wish I could redo. The key is to stay level-headed and communicate clearly. If you’re not ready to jump on a contentious call, it’s okay to step back and put your thoughts into an email instead — just keep it short!

👋 See you back here on Friday

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This newsletter is written by Warner Bailey and edited by Riley Furey and Dominik Sansevere.

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