2025 Impact 50 Honoree: Jarred Arfa

JARRED ARFA
EVP, Head of Global Music
Independent Artist Group

FAVORITE LOCALE FOR A MEETING? “Casa Tua NY.”
PRE-LIVE BIZ GIG: “Director of Operations, Muhammad Ali Enterprises.”

One of the most gratifying moments in any business is when an M&A starts to scale and pay dividends in a way forecasted but yet unclear if the efficiencies and economies of scale will be successful. Those rewards are becoming ever more apparent with the 2023 formation of Independent Artist Group, the result of a merger between Artist Group International (AGI) and the Agency for the Performing Arts (APA).

“Our music department has more amphitheater, arena and stadium headliners than ever before, many of whom were developed internally,” says Jarred Arfa, the agency’s EVP-Head of Global Music, who is running the operations for the new entity, which includes roughly 25 music agents.

“Although we are relatively small in size compared to our competitors, I like to say that we have the most hits per at-bat in terms of headliner per agent. Although bittersweet, the finale of Billy Joel’s historic residency at MSG was a highlight. It is just staggering what he accomplished selling out 104 consecutive monthly shows with almost 2 million tickets sold and a gross of over $260 million.”

With this year marked by economic and political challenges impacting the live industry, Arfa takes a long view of the business.

“I think that although we need to be cognizant of the impact some of (these changes) can have on the live business, it’s best not to get sidetracked by the outside noise and just focus on what you can control. Our team is always very strategic about pricing, packaging, etc.”

Arfa is bullish on the future. “Very excited about the upcoming Ghost and Sleep Token tours coming off No. 1 albums,” he says. “BigXThaPlug has a country album coming, which will only continue to accelerate his crossover success. Metallica continues to crush it in stadiums in the round. Disturbed just came off of an amazing sold-out arena tour. We also have many big European stadiums and headline festivals for 50 Cent this summer. Icons like Rod Stewart, Neil Young and Def Leppard are all working and continue to do great business.”