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Inside TNT Sports’ Lucrative, Star-Studded Branded Concerts for the NBA, NCAA & More

Here's an inside look at TNT Sports' branded concerts for the NBA, NCAA and more featuring stars like Chance the Rapper, Rihanna and Kendrick Lamar.

Basketball, according to Rick Faigin, executive vp of Acceleration Community of Companies, an agency that works with artists and brands, has a way of intersecting with music that other sports don’t have, even when they try — like Major League Baseball, which sporadically stages performers during its Home Run Derby, or the annual Super Bowl Soulful Celebration, starring The Isley Brothers, Yolanda Adams and others in recent years. “It’s exposure you can’t pay for,” adds Dave Aussenberg, music brand partnerships agent at Creative Artists Agency, which represents Shaboozey, Mumford & Sons and others who’ve played TNT sports-and-music events. For the NCAA’s annual March Madness basketball tournament games in San Antonio, “You’re basically building an arena in a downtown park, providing everything from the festival perimeter to the restrooms to the stage, every piece of infrastructure, generators,” Plaisance says.

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