Budweiser Ditches Jay-Z Festival Sponsorship for Country Music Events

Budweiser will not be sponsoring rapper Jay-Z’s “Made In America” music festival this year, despite previously being a major sponsor, instead opting to spend money sponsoring country music events.

Though 2018’s “Made In America” features a popular lineup including Nicki Minaj, Post Malone, Meek Mill, Diplo, Zedd, Ty Dollar $ign, Miguel, Fat Joe, Lil B, and JPEGMAFIA, Budweiser, which “used to spend millions of dollars staging and promoting the fest,” realized that country music attendees drink more Budweiser beer.

“We are realizing that music is being consumed in many different ways today and we want to keep up with trends and how consumers are behaving today,” declared Budweiser Vice President Ricardo Marques, who, according to Ad Age, discovered in research that “fans at country music events spend more on beer than at similarly sized events featuring other genres.”

At South by Southwest festival this year, Budweiser organized Country Music Showcase with Sony Music Nashville.

Earlier this year, Jay-Z’s music streaming service, Tidal, was accused of falsifying the number of streams played by users on the platform. Tidal is reportedly months behind on payments to labels, and some artists have become withdrawing their music from the service.

In May, Jay-Z reportedly convinced rapper Meek Mill to back out of a meeting with President Donald Trump on the topic of prison reform.