20 Coran Capshaw

FOUNDER RED LIGHT MANAGEMENT

“When I look back at 2023, the word ‘consistency’ comes to mind,” Capshaw says. He is referring to annual touring by Dave Matthews Band, Chris Stapleton, Phish, Luke Bryan and Lionel Richie, among others. While those five acts are a fraction of the 400 or so names on Red Light Management’s roster, their annual tours consistently rank among Billboard Boxscore’s top 100 of the year and grossed $250.5 million in 2023. RLM clients grossed nearly $300 million in 2023, with Phish ($76.8 million) and DMB ($66.6 million) earning more than half that figure. A number of RLM artists also hold annual destination events, such as Brandi Carlile’s Girls Just Wanna and Mothership weekends in Maya Riviera, Mexico, and Miramar Beach, Fla.

The press-shy Capshaw steers clear of interviews — he’s the only executive on the Leaderboard without a publicist — but cites the success of the Enrique Iglesias, Pitbull and Ricky Martin Trilogy tour ($66.9 million) and the growth of Firebird as other high points of 2023. RLM launched country label Leo33 with the company and invested in songwriter Ashley Gorley’s publishing company, Tape Room Music.

On the management front, Capshaw says RLM forged a partnership with Sabrina Carpenter’s manager, Janelle Lopez Genzink, and celebrated the success of country artist Lainey Wilson, the first woman in 12 years to win the Country Music Association’s entertainer of the year award last year. “I’m really proud that we develop artists more than most companies,” he says, pointing out that Wilson, Bryan and Stapleton, for example, “started out in clubs and wound up in amphitheaters, arenas and stadiums.” Capshaw is more talkative when it comes to RLM artists’ philanthropy. After he and DMB donated an initial $5 million and raised eight figures for a resident-led initiative to renovate and build almost 800 units of public and affordable housing in Charlottesville, Va., the move-in process has begun. And last year, Trey Anastasio’s Divided Sky Foundation opened a 46-bed nonprofit substance use disorder treatment center in Vermont. Says Capshaw: “You can’t buy the feeling you get doing good.”