Chicago concert promoter Jam Productions has partnered with a Los Angeles-based investment group.
Jam, which operates venues such as the Vic Theatre, the Riviera Theatre and Park West in Chicago, recently celebrated its 50th year in business as one of the largest independent producers of live entertainment in the U.S. It also owns and is behind the renovation of the Uptown Theatre in the Uptown neighborhood, and operates The Palace in St. Paul, Minnesota. It is owned by Jerry Mickelson, who cofounded Jam in 1972 with Arny Granat, who left the company in 2019.
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“It has been obvious that for Jam’s business to grow, it needed to be part of a network, something larger with more locations, data and intelligence analytics as well as booking leverage,” Jam co-founder Jerry Mickelson said. “Over the years I considered all the bigger players but there wasn’t a good fit in terms of how we wanted to operate and compete.”
Jam has sold an equity stake to SaveLive, a California group founded in 2020 and headed by CEO Marc Geiger. Its announcement of the sale calls Jam a “crown jewel in the SaveLive network. Jam and SaveLive intend to aggressively invest in the Midwest targeting small-to-midsize venues across multiple cities.” Coming out of the music industry’s pandemic pause, Jam anticipates producing 450 concerts in 33 venues in the Midwest.
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Mickelson will retain control of Jam and continue to make operational decisions for the company, according to a report in Crain’s Chicago Business.
“It’s exciting to reinvent Jam by aligning with a national company outside of our comfort zone and built differently than ours,” Mickelson said. “We blazed a trail and were always focused on the city’s neighborhoods and on bands who were just starting out. We very much played a part in defining the modern concert business and it’s not over. We’re going to continue to grow and adapt for the next 50 years with SaveLive.”
SaveLive’s current partners include The Alibi and Golden State Theatre in California; Beer City Music Hall, Ponyboy, Tower Theatre and Criterion in Oklahoma City; and Elektricity in Pontiac, Michigan, among others. In a statement, it describes itself as founded “to bring scalable services and advantages to independent venue owners” — services including booking, ticketing, marketing, food and beverage, technology and sales and sponsorship.
“Jam’s platform is a natural next step in building a quality national independent network,” Geiger said. “Jerry’s tenacity over the years of consolidation has been inspiring and we are super excited to integrate and get to work.”
Geiger was also a co-founder of Lollapalooza in 1991, and lead the William Morris Endeavor music division from 2003 until 2020.
Update: This story has been changed with new information about the partnership and Mickelson’s continued role at Jam.
