WME’s Latin Music Division At The Forefront of La Revolución

One doesn’t have to be an insider to know that the Latin music boom over the past decade has boosted the live music business to record earnings and ticket sales. The Recording Industry Association of America recently reported that Latin music is outpacing other genres with a new high of $1.4 billion in revenue, and adjusted for inflation, Latin market revenues are 14% more than the previous peak in 2005. Latin music is everywhere, and entertainment companies like William Morris Endeavor (WME) had a hand in the cultural shift, helping clients such as Bizarrap, Shakira, Luis Miguel, J Balvin, Nicki Nicole and Natanael Cano reach new heights.

Two agents in the trenches of the Latin entertainment space are Richard Lom and Richard Vega, who not only share the same forename but also a passion for the music, and together they helped make WME’s Latin division one of the best in the business. They signed Mexican American singer Ivan Cornejo last August and in a matter of months helped the 19-year-old accomplish a major milestone. Cornejo sold out NRG Stadium at NRG Park with 72,000 fans on March 3, a remarkable flex for the young artist and música Mexicana. Lom and Vega took the time to chat with Pollstar about Latin music finally getting the respect it deserves and where the revolución can go from here.

Pollstar: How did you guys get into the live business?

Richard Lom: I used to be a promoter. I started in this business because my family was in the recorded music business. In the ’90s, I worked in my parents’ warehouse. They had an independent record label. My sisters and I would ship records and CDs. I started the live side where I am now in 2006 with a media company, Spanish Broadcasting System working for the Alarcon Family, and progressed to promoting tours. I got a fateful phone call from WME in 2014 asking me, “Hey, ever thought of becoming an agent?”

I was under the tutelage of legendary agents here. One of the first clients I started working with was J Balvin, and it continues to be an amazing journey.

Richard Vega: I didn’t grow up in the business, but music was in my blood growing up. I grew up living in Nicaragua, Honduras, Jamaica, Barbados. The last country I lived in before moving back into the United States was Colombia, where I lived seven years. I met a bunch of people who are now executives, and one thing led to another, and I moved back to the states in 2011.

I’ve been playing, I’ve been touring, I’ve been booking shows for the bands I was playing with in Colombia. On a fateful night, I met Rebecca Leon. She had just left Goldenvoice, and she asked me, “What do you want to do? You should go work for Rob Markus at WME and look at being a booking agent.”

I signed up to go to Belmont and simultaneously got connected to Jay Williams, who is the head of the Nashville office and was gracious enough to say, “I have something in the Latin space that our company is definitely growing in. You should intern over here.” I interned for two years, was promoted to assistant and worked with Rob Markus and moved back to Nashville.

What are your thoughts on the state of live Latin music, and how has business changed over time?

Lom: This business has been around a long time. It’s just that in the last few years, corporate America has caught up. There are promoters and families that have been serving Hispanic communities for a long time. You can talk about Henry Cárdenas, the Megret family from Texas, the Zamoras, the Frias family, the Valdivia family, who well before Live Nation and AEG and corporate America were serving the Hispanic community. Thankfully, it just keeps growing and getting stronger and stronger every year.

Vega: I think it’s cyclical. Right now, it’s the regional Mexican boom. Take it back two years, it was about reggaeton. Take it back more, it was the alternative rock sound. Everything is always cyclical when it comes to music as a whole, and, specifically in Latin America, everything goes by genres and movements. 

Countries across Latin America are consuming what is mainstream and incorporating it into traditional sounds they have in their countries. That’s what makes corridos special because it takes that urban hip-hop culture from the U.S. and brings it into what was a traditional regional Mexican sound.

What’s interesting is that all these artists are finding success everywhere, no longer needing to cross over by performing in other languages. Why do you think Latin music has resonated across the globe?

Lom: I remember going to those first Shakira shows from her album Dónde Están Los Ladrones? Fast forward to seeing her show at Coachella with Bizarrap. And then you have Luis Miguel, who has been around longer than all of us, and he’s in the biggest cycle of his career. I think he has 150 shows globally between last year and this year. It’s wild, and I would say it hasn’t peaked.

Vega: We haven’t peaked, but I would add because it’s globalizing and the mainstream has taken this appeal to it and artists want to grow their business across these territories, you see a lot of artists who are collaborating more. There’s big value in showing that collaboration across all the genres has helped Latin music as a whole continue to stay relevant. The sound plays a big role in what’s coming out and being pushed at that moment. It’s all timing. We keep pushing la barrera (the barrier) forward, and that’s what keeps the movement growing and evolving.

So many companies are now adding Latin divisions, making the biz more competitive. How do you keep up with the ever-evolving landscape?

Lom: This company has been in the Latin game for a long time, so we’re not playing catch-up. I feel like we’ve always been at the forefront of trends. We were in the regional Mexican game well before I was hired. Every single one of our artists are global, it just so happens they speak Spanish, but we book them on six continents. That’s how we see it.

Vega: If you really go back as to how we prioritized Latin early on, it was when we closed down our Miami office. What we realized was that the agents in that office were very siloed away from the core company. The goal was to relocate people to New York and L.A. and get them immersed into the WME culture and system. That was a very strategic and smart move because agents moved to different offices and got acquainted with the top agents in the film and endorsement spaces, and whenever they needed something specific to the Latin business, they knew who to point to on the ground.

2023 was a record year for many in the industry. What trends are you noticing this year?

Vega: Out of the gate everybody was so hungry to go and buy tickets and go to live performances. You see that continuing now, but I think we will hit a point where you’re going to have to be aware of [ticket prices] because spending habits and the economy play a big role. I think artists are going to have to do an even better job of convincing consumers to buy tickets to their shows. It’s not just put up and sell out. You’re seeing a bunch of tours going up that aren’t blowing up immediately. The appetite to buy immediately is not there unless you’re Ivan Cornejo and you sell out every show on the presale.

Lom: He did 56 shows and sold nearly 150,000 tickets without spending a dollar on advertising. To Vega’s point, we did it with an artist who understands that nuance and cares about his ticket prices and was very methodical in making sure there were tickets available at different price levels for his fanbase.

Vegas: When we were having the ticket conversation with Ivan, he said to us, “When I was 15 years old, I couldn’t buy a $500 ticket. Why would I charge my fan a $500 ticket?”

Is there anything in the Latin music business that surprises you nowadays?

Lom: When I started as a promoter in the late 2000s, it was 20 core markets with Spanish-speaking consumers. Flash forward to today, Vega and I put our clients in nearly 50 markets in the U.S. When Luis Miguel sells out Indianapolis on a midweek with a gross as high as a major city, it’s incredible. 

On the international front, we have J Balvin out on tour right now in Europe. He’s doing business in Germany, Lithuania, Norway, Belgium. He’s going to sell 150,000 tickets on this tour, and it just shows how global his music specifically is and how deep all of Latin music has penetrated.

Vega: I wouldn’t say anything surprises me, but it excites me — going into a new market.

Lom: The Houston Rodeo is a perfect example. Ivan is so near and dear to our hearts because he allows us to work and figure things out.

Vega: [When courting Cornejo in Las Vegas], we came prepared with a plan and told him this is what two years looks like, and this is what three years looks like. We said that we would do a very small underplay run that would lead to a bigger run. If we do things the right way, we’ll get you to the Houston Rodeo, and bet your ass you’re going to sell 70,000 tickets.

Lom: I think he looked at us like we were crazy. They all did.

Vega: He was the fourth highest selling show of the entire Houston Rodeo season. We did a fan presale for his fans … and he sold 20,000 tickets within the hour. 

Lom: It’s one of those rare full-circle moments we’re super proud of.