CAA’s Alex Becket Reflects On Rüfüs Du Sol’s Record-Breaking Tour

When Alex Becket and Danny Robson first sat down to determine how to announce Rüfüs Du Sol’s “Inhale/Exhale Tour,” they weren’t sure what to expect. Within the market of electronic music, full-fledged tours are a rarity. Rather, artists and their teams prefer to dole out dates: a marquee event in New York City, a weekend-long takeover in Los Angeles. They’ll capitalize on FOMO, fans eager to get their hands on tickets and willing to travel for them, unsure whether an event will come to their city.

But Robson, Rüfüs Du Sol’s long-time Aussie manager, and Becket, their agent at CAA who represents the Australian electronic band in the worldwide excluding Europe (while Tom Schroeder at Wasserman Music books Rüfüs in Europe), were aiming for something different. They partnered with Live Nation, and the entire tour would be announced at once. With it, 600,000 tickets would be available at the onsale, with the timing coordinated across time zones and continents including Australia, North and South America, and Europe. The move paid off, and Rüfüs Du Sol became the highest-grossing electronic artists of the year. The trio landed at No. 64 on Pollstar‘s Top Tours of the Year worldwide chart. Across the band’s 35 reported dates, Rüfüs Du Sol sold 590,184 tickets with an average nightly gross of $1.2 million.

“It was highly ambitious, for sure, in terms of selling the most tickets ever by an electronic artist,” Becket says. “We certainly put ourselves ahead of the jump because of the sheer ambition and scale of the tour. It’s unusual to see a tour that’s announced with more than 20 dates within the electronic space; and, of course, DJs typically announce shows in a more one-off style – maybe adding multiple nights in a given city on the weekend. So, the scope in the beginning was unusual. And I have to credit Danny Robson – Danny is a creative genius and an amazing strategic thinker, and it was his brainchild. It was born out of an initial conversation with my colleague, Darryl Eaton at CAA, and Danny had an instinct that he wanted to create this big, single moment rolling out all of ’25 at the same time for a big comeback with a new record.”

The “Inhale/Exhale Tour” took major swings: Rüfüs Du Sol performing two nights at Sports Illustrated Stadium in New Jersey – a venue that, while frequent host to soccer matches, had not had a concert in a dozen years – and Rose Bowl Stadium.

“It wasn’t something we thought about for one second, until after our initial on-sale and the overwhelming success we had right out of the gates, where we sold out probably 85 to 90 percent of our shows,” Becket says. “There was so much that went into executing one cohesive on-sale event across four continents that we didn’t have time to think about anything beyond that. But, once the dust settled a bit, and we could enjoy the moment, is when the thought first occurred to us that maybe we’d done something kind of special here.”

The team worked on the announcement for a year, working to coordinate across each time zone. Throughout the time of planning, Rüfüs Du Sol had been off-cycle, and Becket admits he was worried how the on-sale would play out. “You can’t help but be a little conservative in your expectations,” he says.

When Rüfüs Du Sol returned to touring in 2021 following the COVID pandemic, they found success with their date at BMO Stadium (then called Banc of California Stadium). That motivated Becket and Robson to aim higher with “Inhale/Exhale,” locating stadiums in major markets and navigating the dates. With Sports Illustrated Stadium, the risk paid off.

“We had initial concerns that it was going to be too far outside the city, being on the Jersey side of things,” Becket says. “So, that did come with some nerves. And it was awesome. It didn’t seem to slow the fans down at all.”

For New Yorkers used to utilizing public transit, the PATH dropping fans off right outside the venue was easy to navigate. The event didn’t come without hiccups – security lines, particularly for fans on the floor, featured long waits, as it had been several years since the venue had hosted a concert. However, Sports Illustrated Stadium quickly learned how to better organize, with attendees on the second day witnessing minimal challenges.. The difference was astounding, and put the venue back on the map as an option for artists wanting to to perform within the Tri-State area, with Iron Maiden set to headline Sports Illustrated Stadium on Sept. 5 and 6, 2026.

“It’s not without risk going into some of these venues that aren’t as well-oiled with producing concerts,” Becket says. “But it’s been such a great fan experience that we’re happy to take on the challenge, and we feel we’ve had amazing results. So you can expect more of that and bigger and better from us next year.”

Within the electronic space, growing into a stadium act is an unusual feat that’s been accomplished by few. The genre largely sticks to clubs across the globe, and when larger venues are needed, artists will seek out warehouses as a nod to the genre’s roots.

“I think it’ll be a very long time before you see another Rüfüs,” Becket says. “And the reason being that this band committed from day one when they first came to the U.S. in 2014 that they were going to tour like a rock band. And they slugged it out for years in vans and buses in the middle of nowhere on middle days of the week, and really devoted themselves to growing in that hard ticket, rock band kind of way. It takes an unbelievable amount of discipline, because in those early years there were some really tough nights to fill in between the weekends.”