Features
Todd Coder Breaks Off From Emporium Presents, Forms CODE-R Productions
– Todd Coder
Todd Coder has ended his time with Dan Steinberg and Jason Zink’s Emporium Presents and has founded his own concert booking and promotion company, CODE-R Productions.
Coder, based out of Birmingham, Ala., begins his business working in several different positions for various clients: Director of concert programming for Birmingham’s Iron City (1,300 capacity); In-house talent buyer for Birmingham’s The Lyric Theatre (750 capacity); and co-talent buyer with John Bruton for Nashville’s
“Going out on my own is something that I’ve envisioned for years but it just never came to fruition,” Coder said in a statement. “I’ve been lucky enough to establish excellent relationships in the industry over the last two decades. I’ve gained a tremendous amount of experience from programming and producing major events and by working with a multitude of artists and venues during this period. It was obvious to me that the time was now.”
In addition to his new responsibilities, Coder will continue to promote concerts in Birmingham at venues like Avondale Brewing Company (2,000 capacity), Alabama Theatre (2,150 capacity), and WorkPlay Theatre (450 capacity).
Coder bought talent for the first four years of Gulf Shores, Ala.’s Hangout Music Festival and worked for almost 10 years as talent buyer for Birmingham’s WorkPlay Theatre. He was hired by Emporium Presents in 2016.
Coder sent his former bosses a big shoutout in his announcement of the new company, writing: “There are a number of people that stand out as the positive influencers throughout my career and I am grateful to them all. However, the experience that I gained alongside Dan (Steinberg) and Jason (Zink) and the rest of the team at Emporium Presents is unparalleled and will forever be appreciated and I look forward to working even more with them in the future.”
Live Nation agreed to acquire a majority stake in EmporiumPresents in October, and Emporium’s work in the South was a point of pride for Zink at the time when that deal was announced.
“We’re doing shows down there and growing in the Southeast,” Zink told Pollstar. “Todd’s been down there and developing great relationships with a lot of venues. A lot of the shows we would normally do all over the country, Todd is down there doing in that neck of the woods and he adds a lot of stuff that we weren’t doing before.”