Billboard Touring Awards

The Billboard Touring Conference and Awards is an annual meeting sponsored by Billboard magazine which also honors the top international live entertainment industry artists and professionals. Established in 2004, it has thus been described as "part industry conference, part awards show".

Many of the awards are based on Billboard's Boxscore chart tracking concert, comedy and other live entertainment attendance and gate receipts, and on real box office performance. As a result, the awards often equate to commercial success. The "top tour" superlative award is also given on the basis of fan polls. The "Legend of Live" and Humanitarian awards are given to individuals for their ongoing contributions to the live entertainment touring industry.

The conference and awards are held in November of each year, typically at the Roosevelt Hotel in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. The conference usually takes place over two days and is attended by figures from the music and concert industry. Each year features a keynote speaker from the performance industry, who in the past have included the likes of Gene Simmons of Kiss and 3 Doors Down.

While recorded music has an established awards structure headed by the Grammy Awards and also featuring the American Music Awards and the MTV Video Music Awards, live performance music has not had the same. The Billboard Touring Awards are an attempt to fill that gap. Billboard previously attempted to enter the awards arena for recorded music with the charts-based Billboard Music Award, which lasted from 1990 through 2006, returning in 2011. Those awards featured two slots for Concert Venue Award and Touring Venue Award, but were not otherwise live-performance-based.

Award names and awards given themselves have varied somewhat each year, with for example the Top Comedy Tour and Concert Marketing & Promotion Awards being added in 2007 and the Fans Choice being added in 2008, both being determined by fan vote. There are typically three nominees in each category.

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