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"Let's get everyone in a room to discuss what to do," said Troy Carter, manager of up-and-coming pop star Lady Gaga, to his assistant as he walked into his Santa Monica office. It was September 2009 , a week after the MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs) ceremony that had seen Gaga win a coveted Best New Artist award and that had featured a spectacular performance of her hit song Paparazzi-ending with the singer-songwriter, covered in fake blood, dangling from the ceiling -but that had also led to the unraveling of Gaga's carefully crafted touring plans. At the VMAs, hip-hop artist Kanye West - with whom Gaga had planned to co-headline a highprofile arena tour - had crashed the stage just as the first award of the night, for Best Female Video, was presented to Taylor Swift. West had cut the teen singer off, grabbing the microphone from her and protesting in support of singer Beyonc, thereby stunning many music industry insiders and causing dismay among television audiences around the world. Coming on the heels of several other controversial actions by the rapper, the ensuing media storm prompted West to take a break from the music industry - and withdraw from the tour that had taken months to plan. Seated with Gaga at the award ceremony, one row behind Beyonc, Carter had quickly realized that revisiting the touring plans might be necessary - and that it would be quite a challenge. Gaga had much going for herself: her first and only album, The Fame, had already yielded three hit songs; she was signed to famed producer Vincent Herbert's Streamline Records, a subsidiary of leading record company Universal Music Group; and she had captured the imagination of fans-"little monsters," as she liked to call them - in person and through online social networks. However, Gaga was relatively inexperienced: she had only emerged on the scene in October 2008, as a supporting act for New Kids On The Block-a former boy band beyond their glory years-and had only headlined a tour of small clubs with a capacity of a few thousand people at most, a far cry from the 20,000-seat arenas planned for the tour with West. Carter knew that continuing the tour but doing so solo would be a huge risk: developing artists typically did not take on arenas, and a failure to draw fans could seriously hurt Gaga's brand. However, scaling back the tour or even canceling the idea altogether would have disadvantages as well-among other drawbacks, recouping the $4 million that Gaga and her team had already invested would be difficult with a smaller-scale tour, revising the tour could jeopardize the promotion of her upcoming second album The Fame Monster, and the team likely had only a few short weeks to rework their stage production. Making matters even more complicated, Carter would also have to consider the implications for Gaga's partners in the venture, including the concert promoter Live Nation and the William Morris Endeavor agency. What was the best course of action? Instructions: Please read the case in the coursepack and answer the following questions using no more than 4 pages of text (not including tables/figures, if applicable). Label each question and use 12 point, Times New Roman font and 1.15 line spacing. Submit your answers in Canvas before the specified deadline. 1. If you were Troy Carter, which of the three touring options would you pursue for Lady Gaga? Why? 2. How much money does Gaga stand to gain (or lose) under each option? In your view, do the potential rewards justify the investment? 3. What were some of the unique aspects of Gaga's launch as an artist up to September 2009? How can her team best go about further developing her touring and recording career going forward? 4. How important are concert-ticket sales versus recordedmusic sales for an artist like Gaga? Where should team Gaga focus its efforts in the future? Page 1 of 1