To the average Colorado concert-goer, the names Chuck Morris and Don Strasburg may not ring a bell. 

These two men dominate the music venue industry in Colorado –– owning popular locations such as the 1stBank Center in Broomfield and The Fox Theater in Boulder. Morris is a Colorado Music Hall of Fame inductee and consultant for Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG) Rocky Mountain and Pacific Northwest. Strasburg, who founded Boulder’s Fox Theatre, owns Z2 Entertainment and serves as AEG Rocky Mountain’s senior talent buyer. 

Morris and Strasburg have been credited with helping to make Colorado a popular destination for big-name artists. But some independent artists and managerial teams feel that the state lacks the infrastructure and support to have a thriving local scene that offers upward mobility to emerging performers.

“We don’t have a lot of things that invest back into our local music industry,” said Kori Hazel, co-founder of Future Garden Agency, an independent Denver-based music agency. 

Before an independent musician can gain the attention of a managerial team, touring is typically  what classically has been shown as a next step in an artist’s career for an artist to grow. The Fox Theater, owned by Strasburg (Z2 Entertainment), has hosted once up- and- coming independent artists, at the time, such as Tyler, The Creator and Mac Miller. Today, it primarily hosts non-independent artists. 

Without access to smaller venues operated by Morris or owned by Strasburg, independent artists are forced to place their names on marquees at independent venues – many of which form a loop in which artists get stuck in.

Unbeknownst to many, independent artists and managerial teams in the state have yet to crack the carefully crafted code created by the pair over decades of music venue acquisition and consolidation. 

Booking shows and gaining recognition for an independent artist or managerial team in Colorado shouldn’t be as difficult as the seemingly unbreakable code that Morris and Strasburg have created.

Hazel goes on to mention that there’s no shortage of shows for artists to play, but rather the lack of infrastructure, such as independent venues and managerial teams, to support an upcoming artist is what has detrimentally impacted the Colorado music industry. 

A 2018 study done by Michael Seman, Ph.D. for the University of Colorado Denver found that over 7,816 people were employed as musicians, music managers and/or agents. In a different July 2020 study conducted also by Seman but for Colorado State University, that number dropped to 3,916 likely due to the COVID-19 pandemic; the estimated job loss between 2018 and 2020 being 3,900 in this category. Both studies are available to the public via the internet.

Harry Burgwyn, a Colorado music industry professional with, as he says, “hands in both pots,” works for the independent Denver venue, Lion’s Lair, as an audio engineer and also for AEG. He mentions that the venue almost shut down due to COVID-19, but thanks to a fundraiser via GoFundMe, the venue was able to remain open. 

The Lion’s Lair, a staple venue in Denver music history, is among many venues in the state that barely made it out of the COVID-19 tidal wave; a handful had to shut their doors permanently.

These artists then play the handful of independent venues, who did survive the COVID-19 impact, in the Colorado metro area in order to gain recognition or are seen by, hopefully, a managerial team who then can book them at a venue owned by Strasburg or operated by Morris. 

Though this proves difficult for many, Burgwyn states that the consolidation of music venues and who you know acts as a gatekeeper:

“They book the bands that they have relationships with on better nights and it’s harder for an artist to break through when you’re not in the clubs so to speak,” Burgwyn stated. “Larger talent buyers have multi-year contracts with bands and certain venues so it can be harder for local acts to infiltrate those bigger shows.”

If artists are able to book these bigger shows, they are subject to merchandise cuts which are taken by the venue or consignment ticketing, a process where the artist/band personally sells tickets and gets a small portion back; both having caused issues between independent artists and non-independent venues in the past.

With the handful of independent venues, such as the Lion’s Lair, who did survive the COVID-19 impact on local music industries, and lack of managerial teams to book artists at non-indie venues typically causes smaller artists and managerial teams to be locked at the independent level.

The consolidation and monopoly operation of Colorado music venues as held by Morris and Strasburg has put a lid on the growth of independent artists and managerial teams.

“There are so many artists that started in Colorado and abandoned ship to Los Angeles. Colorado just doesn’t have the infrastructure that Los Angeles, New York or Nashville has. It’s hard for artists to thrive here,” Hazel states. 

Hazel, also manager of N3ptune and Rusty Steve, says that he and his team have had to get creative when it comes to booking the duo; both having opened together for pop artist Rina Sawayama in a last minute opportunity at the Ogden Theater in April of this year. 

The pair and Future Garden Agency are a rare few that have pushed past the barrier created by Morris and Strasburg. Barb Dye, Colorado Music Business Organization president, says that the key to growth for an independent artist is showmanship, something that N3ptune has plenty of.

This is also dependent on the case that the independent artist is able to be on a stage in order to display that showmanship.

Dye has acted as a booking agent for 11 clubs and theaters in Colorado and operates SweetRevenge management that oversees country and hard rock artists. 

“I remember when I saw Elvis. There was a woman in front of me who screamed ‘I love you, Elvis!’ and he looked her in the eye and said ‘I love you too, honey.’ You could’ve sworn that even though he was looking at her, he was looking at you too. He had that kind of showmanship that could sell out any club or theater,” Dye stated. 

She goes on to mention that even with showmanship, it is still incredibly difficult for artists to grow due to the lack of infrastructure in the Colorado music industry.

“You know so many artists these days think they know everything when really they don’t. They think they can just release a song and that’s it, but then you have to register it with BMI (Broadcast Music, Inc.) and ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers). You have to protect and register your work,” she states.

Independent artists can do this independently, though as Dye states, the infrastructure, such as a managerial team, that needs to exist to inform an independent artist to do so is limited. The infrastructure available is education via the internet, but even then, the internet cannot book an independent artist at a non-independent venue unless they have acquired streaming numbers, fans and more through social media. 

Though, the question remains, are these social media fans based locally and able to attend the show? 

The issue of growth for an independent artist and/or managerial team is large in the state of Colorado, its root stemming from the consolidation of music venues held by Morris and Strasburg which directly impacts the availability of infrastructure.

Without firm infrastructure, such as accessibility to bigger shows at non-independent venues and managerial teams, the existence of the Colorado music industry collapses on itself.

Hazel believes that many of the artists that leave Colorado to venture onwards to cities that have better music industry infrastructure are often lost in a sea of other people who have the same dream. 

He offers the sentiment that if they stayed and tried to build their name in a state where there’s less competition, they might stand out more once they did move. Though, he does mention that this is all dependent on the idea if they can make a name for themselves in Colorado. 

Recently, consolidation and monopoly has been a hot topic in music industry business, Ticketmaster, who merged with powerhouse Live Nation in 2010, is being investigated by the Department of Justice after the fiasco that occurred when tickets for Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour went on sale; Live Nation is a rival to AEG. 

The consolidation of music venues in Colorado is tied to a national level and impacts an industry on the local level. 

AEG and Live Nation compete annually in Colorado to bring in the biggest artists to their venues in the state, both bringing in hundreds of thousands of customers through Ticketmaster or AXS; AXS being owned by AEG. Z2 Entertainment dares to do the same, though with a lesser number of customers due to capacity limits in their smaller venues.

As stated by Colleen Smith for the Denver Business Journal in 2019, “AEG and Live Nation duke it out for musical supremacy at the global level, but AEG dominates the Denver market. It books the most concerts and tickets all city events through axs.com. […] AEG books the majority of Red Rocks shows and exclusively books First Bank Center, The Ogden, The Gothic, The Bluebird and rents spaces as large as Pepsi Center (now Ball Arena) and Coors Field for stadium concerts.”

In 2021, Red Rocks Amphitheater was stated as the world’s most attended venue as ranked by Billboard, raking in “a gross ticket revenue of more than $60 million on 134 concerts in 2021, the most of any venue,” as reported by the Denver Business Journal. This was even with smaller capacity shows due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Strasburg has a leg up as to what is required, due to his position at AEG Rocky Mountain and subsequent network connections, to also bring bigger artists to the Boulder Theater, Fox Theater and Aggie Theater; this ultimately gatekeeps local artists and managerial teams from booking shows at those venues.

This conglomeration of power only drives the popularity of musicians playing local Colorado venues upwards and the accessibility of independent artists being able to play at those venues downwards.

Nick Purcell, former University of Colorado Boulder Music Industry Club and Big Table Records president, states that “it’s difficult for someone who’s just starting to make music and getting involved as a grassroots artist to reach bigger venues because there’s such a gap in what the expectations are for artists to be openers or just to do shows at all.” 

As Strasburg once forged his relationship with University of Colorado Boulder alumni Morris in order to dominate the Colorado music industry, the future of what the university’s club and record label has to offer moving forward is what recent graduate, Purcell, believes to be exciting.

Purcell ends on the sentiment that while excited, “there should be a better channel for smaller artists to get noticed. It’s hard to break in.”