#wasserman

Nadia Khomami at The Guardian:

The pop star Chappell Roan has announced she has left her talent agency after emails between its founder and Ghislaine Maxwell were featured in the Epstein files. The Grammy-winning artist shared a statement on social media announcing her departure from Wasserman, led by the sports and entertainment executive Casey Wasserman. “As of today, I am no longer represented by Wasserman,” Roan, best known for hits including Good Luck, Babe! and Pink Pony Club, wrote on Instagram. “I hold my teams to the highest standards and have a duty to protect them as well. No artist, agent or employee should ever be expected to defend or overlook actions that conflict so deeply with our own moral values.” Documents recently released by the US justice department included flirtatious email exchanges between Wasserman, who was married at the time, and Maxwell from 2003. Maxwell was convicted in 2021 on federal charges that she conspired with Epstein to sexually abuse teenage girls.

Wasserman, who is in charge of organising the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics, has apologised for communicating with Maxwell. “I deeply regret my correspondence with Ghislaine Maxwell,” he said, adding that it occurred “long before her horrific crimes came to light”.

[...] The indie rock band Wednesday said they were “aghast” to see Wasserman feature in the Epstein files and they hoped he would step down “for the sake of his staff”. The Dropkick Murphys posted on social media: “The namesake of the agency is in the Epstein files so … we GONE.” The rock band Beach Bunny said they were “hugely disappointed and disgusted” that Wasserman “had involvement with Ghislaine Maxwell”. Others who shared statements about Wasserman included Best Coast’s frontwoman, Bethany Cosentino, who wrote “people in power can’t keep skating by”, and the experimental indie rock duo Water From Your Eyes, who said they had “no interest in being affiliated with Casey Wasserman”. Alexis Krauss of Sleigh Bells said the duo would not leave the company, citing the financial impact it would have on the band. “Do I wish I could burn it all down, boycott and divest? Sure I do,” she wrote. Other prominent musicians represented by Wasserman include Ed Sheeran, Kendrick Lamar, Coldplay, SZA, Lorde and Tyler, the Creator.

so, Chapelle Roan, Orville Peck, and Weyes Blood have left the Wasserman booking agency (the agency Louis is also with, among other friends of Harry & his, for example Ed Sheeran, Hurts (Theo Hutchcraft), Lewis Capaldi, Liam Gallagher, etc.) after the agency's CEO, Casey Wasserman, appeared in the Epstein files multiple times.

I have just now published a post that I had written about Louis' booking agency in May 2025 and all of the info that I posted, which I referenced with their website, is now gone.

Sleigh Bells singer Alexis Krauss has opened up about the pressures many artists face amid calls to boycott major companies in the music industry.

In an Instagram post, Krauss discussed the calls for artists to boycott or cut ties with companies including Wasserman – she also name-checked Spotify, Live Nation and Ticketmaster – and explained why she felt her band can’t afford to do so.

Acts including Chappell Roan, Water For Your Eyes and Wednesday have all severed ties with the talent agency Wasserman after its CEO, Casey Wasserman, faced backlash for his email correspondence with convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell over 20 years ago.

Earlier this month, Wasserman said he “deeply regrets” emails from 2003 between him and Maxwell, claiming that they were sent “long before her horrific crimes came to light”. Best Coast’s Bethany Cosentino led the calls for him to step down at the time.

The messages had featured in the latest government files on the late child sex offender and human trafficker Jeffrey Epstein (via The Guardian).

“I’ve been spending a lot of time lately contemplating my responsibility as an individual and an artist in a system that can be exploitative, morally bankrupt and at times criminal,” she began. “Over the course of my 28 year career in the music industry I’ve often questioned why I continue to be a part of it.”

Looking back on her time as a teenager in a band whose “body was digitally altered without my consent to make me look thinner,” she said: “Despite being in a band that I’m deeply proud of, that has tried to treat people ethically, work with individuals and companies that share our values and act with integrity, I find myself often beholden to corporations and systems that prioritize profit over ethics.

“Do I wish I could burn it all down, boycott and divest? Sure I do. But to be totally honest I can’t afford to. My band can’t afford to. Our ability to make a living in this industry is dependent on our engagement with these companies. This might not be the case for all artists but for a mid-tier band like ours, I struggle to find a way around it.”

Discussing Wasserman, she said she’d “love to just leave” but added: “Can we? No because I love and respect our agent and I trust him to make the decision that is best for himself, his family and his artists. The agents at Wasserman are not the villains.”

She continued, “Have my values aligned with every sync we’ve ever approved? No they haven’t, but does that income enable me to pay mine and my child’s health insurance every month? You bet it does … In my opinion it’s not the responsibility of the artists, especially those struggling to make a living, to fix these broken systems.”

She also said that while she’d “love” to take Sleigh Bells’ music off Spotify and stop supporting Live Nation and Ticketmaster, it wouldn’t be feasible for an act who rely on the streaming platform and “barely breaks even touring”.

A number of artists have removed their music from Spotify in recent months, following reports last summer that the then-CEO Daniel Ek led a €600million (£524million) investment into Helsing, a Munich-based company creating drones and artificial intelligence for military operations.

As for Ticketmaster and its parent company Live Nation, regulators in the US sued them in September over alleged “illegal” tactics when reselling tickets. And in October, the Association Of Independent Festivals (AIF) called for Live Nation to be broken up for exceeding “market dominance” of arena, stadium and outdoor gigs.

Krauss finished her statement by calling on “more multimillion and billionaire artists” to hold large institutions accountable, explaining, “At some point you just don’t need anymore fucking money,” and explaining, “I’m still in this business because I love my band, I love my bandmate and I love the people who have given so much of themselves to our band. They are worth investing in, even if that means simultaneously supporting a depraved system.”

As for Sleigh Bells, their most recent album, ‘Bunky Becky Birthday Boy’ – containing the single ‘Wanna Start A Band?‘ came out in April 2025, while they headed out on a US and Canadian tour last summer.

WASSERMAN’S HOLLY ROWLAND ON THE RISE OF LOUIS TOMLINSON

"When I say I've booked a 39-date arena tour for Louis, people can't believe it and they can't believe his ticket sales," says Tomlinson's agent

By IQ on 23 Nov 2022

Wasserman Music agent Holly Rowland has spoken to IQ about Louis Tomlinson’s 2023 European arena tour.

The former One Direction star is to embark on a 39-date outing across 28 countries next year, having recently completed a pandemic-delayed tour that spanned 57 dates in Europe, South America, Asia and Australia.

“Louis wanted to go everywhere,” says Rowland, who represents Tomlinson with Wassmerman’s Alex Hardee.

“One Direction never really toured Europe extensively – they did the major cities and the stadiums – but they never went to Eastern Europe for example. During their solo careers, Harry Styles has never done it and Niall Horan has never done it.”

Rowland believes that unlike Styles and Horan, who have also carved out solo careers since the best-selling boyband disbanded in 2016, Tomlinson’s worth is often underestimated.

“When I say I’ve booked a 39-date arena tour for Louis, people can’t believe it,” Rowland tells IQ. “They don’t believe his sales or the fact he has his own festival.”

If Tomlinson was overlooked before, it all looks set to change now. Last Friday (18 November), the star beat Bruce Springsteen to score his first solo UK No. 1 album with ‘Faith In The Future’ via BMG. At the same time, ticket sales for his forthcoming tour are “really strong” despite going on sale a year in advance.

“It will sell out,” says Rowland. “London’s The O2 [cap. 21,000], for example, is on 90% and even markets which are typically late sellers, like Greece, are nearly sold out even though the concerts are still a year away.”

Rowland says it’s thanks to a symbiotic album-tour campaign that Tomlinson’s sales are strong on both the recorded and the live side.

“You wouldn’t typically go on sale with a tour so early but we needed to go out before the album so we could get the pre-orders,” she explains. “Synchronicity with recorded and live has sometimes been missed before but now, more than ever, it’s so important. An artist does well because their whole team is across everything and is communicating with each other.”

Rowland and Tomlinson’s team are particularly proud of the ticket prices for the tour, which start at £27.50 regionally.

“He’s a man of the people,” she says. “For example, he won’t do any golden circles or platinum or flexible ticketing or increased isle seating or paid meet-and-greets. That’s his philosophy.

“The issue nowadays is costs are going up so you have to cover your base but also keep it fair for the customer. The promoters crunched the numbers on their side and there was a lot of back and forth on the ticket price but obviously, the tour is spread across multiple dates so that helps. Plus it’s something Louis really wants to do.”

Promoters working on Tomlinson’s forthcoming tour include Live Nation (Slovenia, Hungary, Bulgaria), 8 Days a Week (Baltics), Pop Farm (Greece), Follow The Step (Poland), Charmenko (Romania), Fource Entertainment (Czech Republic) and SJM (UK).

The Faith In The Future 2023 outing is the follow-up to Tomlinson’s first world tour, which concluded in September, having been pushed back due to the pandemic.

Highlights from the tour include South America – “one of Louis’s biggest markets” – which saw the star sell 30,000 tickets in Brazil, 30,000 in Buenos Aires and 21,000 in Mexico.

Rowland also notes an open-air show in Milan, Italy, at the beginning of September, which saw 34,000 tickets fly off the shelf in 48 hours.

2022 also saw the evolution of Tomlinson’s own festival, Away From Home, which launched last year in Crystal Palace Park, London, and was free to attend.

This year the event moved to Malaga in Spain and featured The Vaccines, Sun Room, Stone and Hinds, all of whom performed alongside Tomlinson. This time around the event was ticked and Rowland says it sold 15,500 tickets in two days.

“I programmed it [alongside Louis] so it was quite fun to be on the other side of things, being the promoter and offering out supports to agents,” says Rowland.

Launching a festival was the natural progression for Tomlinson, who is known to hand-pick his own tour supports – many of whom go on to see great success, according to Rowland and Hardee.

“His fanbase is so loyal and they hang on every word he says,” says Rowland. “He’ll go onstage after the support acts and say ‘How amazing were they, go out and follow them,’ and that’s what his fans do because they really believe in him and trust him.”

Rowland notes that Tomlinson’s fanbase is surprisingly young – between 14–18 years old – which translates into strong merchandise sales, thanks to the parent pound.

“What’s crazy is that his fanbase is so young, they weren’t even around when One Direction were having their heyday. They must’ve found the band through siblings or something…” she notes.

When asked if it has been difficult to extricate Tomlinson from his previous work in One Direction, Rowland says: “He can’t hide from his past – One Direction were one of the biggest boybands of all time – but we need to respect his path and see him for the artist he wants to be and not who he was.

And as for comparisons to his former bandmates’ solo careers, she adds: “Harry is pop, Niall is more singer-songwriter and Louis is indie. That’s the music he loves and you can see that through the acts he requests to support him. It’s time now to shine the light on who he is.”