Singer Jon Bellion Reveals Alleged Pitfalls of His Former Deal With Live Nation

Singer Jon Bellion disclosed the inner workings of his unfavorable former deal with Live Nation on The George Janko Show.

“Basically, I got to a place in my career, we sold out 10,000 people at Jones Beach, I mean, it was the height of everything for me and it was right around the time I figured out how my Live Nation contract worked,” Bellion recalled at the 13:02 mark in the video above. “It was right around the time I figured out how my record deal actually worked.”

Bellion remembered being suspicious of the amount of food and items being purchased while he was touring. “When you figure that out on the road and you’re thinking, “Why did we buy 300 rolls of toilet paper? Why did we have to get, spend this much on catering every day?” he said. “No one’s eating the pizza. We’re throwing out pies.”

The singer could not understand why he was expected to pay off his advance when there were so many alleged loopholes being exploited by Live Nation. He recalled his deal being contingent on “hard ticket sales,” while the live entertainment company solely profited off of a concept known as “peanuts, parking, and alcohol” that delivered a far greater financial haul than what Bellion was seeing.

“You advance me one million and tell me I’m rich to then find out that you’re making four million a night,” he explained. “It takes me 36 shows to pay back the one million you advanced me.”

Because of the hard ticket sales model, Bellion said he not only needed to sell out every show to ensure that he did not fall in the red, but he also faced the possibility of Live Nation offering tickets to his shows at a lower price, which was allowed in his contract.

Bellion said the realization came with panic attacks until he bought himself out of his deal with Live Nation by paying an extra 25 percent on his advance.