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Live Nation Discounts All Lawn Seats

This Week's Attempt To Sell More Concert Tickets:  Live Nation discounts all lawn seats at its outdoor venues to $24.95 including all service fees.  (Is that really a discount for a lawn seat?)  The fun starts at 12:01 AM Wednesday June 17th and goes for 24 hours only at LiveNation.com. 

Concert & Ticket Info Hub Livekick Leaves Beta

Concert recommendation and ticket search engine Livekick jumps out of beta today. The free site helps fans discover local live concerts and then helps them get the best deal on  tickets. The Livekick search engine includes 75,000 U,S. concerts of 20,000 artists performing in almost 40,000 venues.

Based on profile and location, Livekick sends updates on tours including presales and promos like today's Live Nation announcement. Updates are delivered online, via email, Twitter or personal RSS feed. Once fans find a concert, Livekick searches for the best available tickets online. Their search engine continuously scans direct and reseller ticket sites including TicketMaster, LiveNation, StubHub, Tickets.com, TicketWeb, TicketCity, TicketsNow, eBay, and MySpace Music.

Fans can add their favorite artists or import them from iTunes, their computer, MySpace, Last.fm, Pandora, iLike, blip.fm or Rhapsody. Livekick then creates a musical profile and automatically imports new artists from your music services as you listen to new music online.

Video & More After The Jump

Live Nation Extends "No Service Fee" Promo

Live Nation is expanding its “No Service Fee” promotion to all tickets at it's amphitheaters for 24 hours this Wednesday, June 10th on LiveNation.com.

Last week’s “No Service Fee Wednesday” generated a sales spike  500% higher than the average number of tickets sold on a typical Wednesday according to the company. The company  came under some fire last week when fans realized that service fee has been dropped, parking,and certain venue fees and taxes still apply.

Selling tickets during a tough economy is behind the series of Wednesday promotions, but the promoter is also sending a message to merger partner Ticketmaster and the greater music industry that ticket fees have gotten out of control

The Wednesday promotions "send a strong message to the music industry about how strongly consumers feel about ticket fees." a  spokesperson told Hypebot. "Our job is to get as many fans as possible to the show to see their favorite artists," said Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino.

Live Nation Says Wednesday's Sale Could "Send A Strong Message" Opposing High Ticket Fees

This Wednesday, Live Nation is dropping ticketing fees for 24 hours at major amphitheater concerts and will continue similar promotions throughout the summer. But are these promos designed to counter sluggish sales?

Two responses from a Live Nation spokesperson two our inquiries suggest that another reason for the sale. Live Nation hopes to send message backed by legions of concert goers to the rest of the industry,  including proposed merger partner Ticketmaster, that high ticket service fees have to go.

Q: Is this promotion a response to lower ticket sales and criticisms of ticketing fees?

"Fans are buying tickets at a healthy pace, despite the economy. As an indicator, we recently reported that our deferred revenue was up +24% to nearly $700 million in Q1. Since launching our new ticketing platform www.livenation.com in January, we have sold nearly 5 million tickets across the world. We know music fans dislike service fees, which is why we’re doing our best for them by waiving the fees for over five million lawn tickets on Wednesday."

Q. Will you be doing more experimentation with variable pricing beyond summer Wednesdays and the effect of ticketing fees on sales and customer satisfaction?

"Our June 3rd No Fee Wednesdays promotion is the biggest national promotion in the history of the company, so we think this is a great start. We encourage fans to take advantage of the huge savings that day. If they do, it will send a strong message to the music industry about how strongly consumers feel about ticket fees."

More: Live Nation Drops All Ticket Charges During "No Service Fee Wednesday's"

Live Nation Drops All Ticket Charges During "No Service Fee Wednesday's"

 

Live Nation is dropping service fees on more than five million lawn tickets at amphitheater shows ticketed by LiveNation.com for 24 hours beginning at 12:01 AM June 3rd. 
.
Whether in response to lower ticket sales or ongoing criticism about ticketing fees, the world's largest concert promoter will continue to offer a variety of “No Service Fee Wednesdays” specials throughout the rest of the summer,

“Summer concerts are a great escape in these tough times,” said Michael Rapino, who heads Live Nation said in a statement. "We wanted to do something that had never been done before and 'No Service Fee Wednesdays' provide incredible value to millions of music fans.”

More Details:

Bring More Beer Money: Live Nation Looks To Ticketholders For Increased Revenues

When CEO Michael Rapino joined Live Nation a few years ago, he promised to improve the concert customer experience. Lately fans have been giving the concert giant failing grades over of high ticket prices, rising ticketing fees and insider deals for the best seats that could get worse if a merger with Ticketmaster goes through.

Now fans can add higher concession and merchandise fees to the their list of complaints. Last week as Live Nation reported that ticket sales were down 22.6% in the previous quarter, the company also promised to boost revenue on the backs of its existing customers. 

"With the reduced attendance expected throughout the year in North America we knew driving more dollars from each fan was a key strategy. We believe we'll achieve this in two ways; first through higher margins on food and beverage...

Live Nation Attendance Drops 22%. Is Live Music In Trouble Too?

Conventional wisdom says that live music is exempt from recessions.  Even when times are tough - perhaps particularly when times are tough - people want to party. But that didn"t prevent Live Nation's first-quarter losses widened as the company saw a sharp drop in attendance for North American concerts.

Live Nation's quarterly earnings report showed a loss of $102.7 million, or $1.29 a share, compared with a Q1 2008 loss of $37.2 million (.50 cents per share.) The promoter also saw a 33.4 million loss of revenue that was due primarily to international currency rates. The losses were palliated by higher revenue from Sweden, Belgium and The Netherlands where stadium, arena and theatre events had a strong quarter.

The North American live music sector was particularly tough for Live Nation and they reported a precipitous drop of 22.6% in attendance at live events from the same period in 2008 although revenue per fan was up by 5.7%. Live Nation staged more concerts during the first 3 months of 2009 as well, up by 1% to 4,528 from Q1 2008.

SXSW Wednesday Night: Already A Bit Blurry

If you've ever been to SXSW, you know how the sheer volume of music and people takes it toll quickly.  Two highlights from Wednesday night were packed houses at The Continental Club for the always rockin'  Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band and at Stubbs for The Decemberists. Let's hope the Mark & Pat Show are clear eyed enough for their 10AM Thursday demo of the new Topspin online marketing platform and don't forget to pick up their $2 from Ian while they"re there.

 

Trent Reznor On Scalping And The Live Nation Ticketmaster Merger

"be suspect of artists singing the praises of the... merger"

"I assure you nobody in the NIN camp supplies or supports the practice of supplying tickets to these re-sellers because it's not something we morally feel is the right thing to do. We are leaving money on the table here but it's not always about money..."

"My guess as to what will eventually happen if / when Live Nation and TicketMaster merges is that they'll move to an auction or market-based pricing scheme - which will simply mean it will cost a lot more to get a good seat for a hot show. They will simply BECOME the scalper, eliminating them from the mix."

"Nothing's going to change until the ticketing entity gets serious about stopping the problem - which of course they don't see as a problem. The ultimate way to hurt scalpers is to not support them. Leave them holding the merchandise. If this subject interests you, check out the following links. Don't buy from scalpers, and be suspect of artists singing the praises of the Live Nation / TicketMaster merger. What's in it for them?"

Full text

Op-Ed: Live Nation Ticketmaster Merger Is Too Good To Be True

David Balto is an antitrust attorney who testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee on the Ticketmaster-Live Nation merger. Previously, he was the Policy Director for the Bureau of Competition of the Federal Trade Commission and a litigator in the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice. 

GUEST EDITORIAL: With great fanfare a couple months ago Ticketmaster and Live Nation announced their proposed marriage.  They suggest this union will result in savings to consumers, greater choice and even greater revenue to artists.  It appears to be a deal that is too good to be true.  That’s because it is. 

The history of Ticketmaster and Live Nation’s past acquisitions gives one no reason to hope for a rosy future.  Their past acquisitions have not resulted in either lower prices or better services so consumers have not received benefits from the deals.  Ticketmaster’s use of the recently acquired TicketsNow to manipulate the ticket distribution for Bruce Springsteen concerts demonstrates the company’s proclivity to use acquisitions to manipulate the market, dampen supply and ramp up prices.  Moreover, Live Nation’s addition of venue ownership and management to its concert promotion services has led to exclusivity arrangements that diminish alternatives for artists and audiences, as well as significantly increase prices.  Combining a ticketing monopolist with the dominant firm in concert promotion hardly seems like a recipe for anything procompetitive for consumers.

Moreover, the parties have not offered much in cost savings or efficiencies.  When asked about the

Major Artists Lobby For Live Nation Ticketmaster Merger But Don't Disclose Azoff Connection

Unlike Bruce Springsteen and the many musicians who oppose the merger of Live Nation and Ticketmaster, at least four high profile artists have written letters to Congress expressing their strong support. But in each case, the artist, as well as Ticketmaster and Live Nation, failed to reveal their connection to one of the key players in the deal. 

Eddie Van Halen, Seal, Billy Corgan of The Smashing Pumpkins and the four members of the band Journey  have signed individual letters supporting the merger. Each is managed or co-managed by Ticketmaster CEO Irving Azoff and his Front Line Management. Azoff is also slated to hold one of the top three positions in the new merged company.

The letters were presented during a recent hearing before a sub-committee of the U.S. House Of Representatives after Democratic Rep. Brad Sherman, who represents Azoff's Los Angeles district, asked if anyone had letters to present regarding the merger. Each of the four letters includes the artist's path to a career in music, how grateful they are for their successes, an acknowledgment of how the industry has shifted towards a direct artist-to-fan relationship and their belief that a Live Nation Ticketmaster merger can better foster that connection.  

Read pdf scans of the original letters by Eddie Van Halen, Seal, and Journey plus Hypebot coverage of the Billy Corgan letter.

Pumpkin Corgan Actually Thinks Live Nation Ticketmaster Merger Is A Good Idea

UPDATE: Corgan and The Smashing Pumpkins are managed by Frontline headed by Irving Azoff who also just happens to be the CEO of Ticketmaster and is slated for a top position in the new merged company. MORE: Major Artists Lobby For Live Nation Ticketmaster Merger But Don't Disclose Azoff Connection

Did we read this right? Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan sent a letter to Congress in support of the merger of Ticketmaster and Live Nation.  Maybe when shaving his head some of his brains slipped out.

"...The combination of these companies creates powerful tools for an independent artist to reach their fans in new and unprecedented ways, all the while restoring the power where it belongs...In short, we have a broken system. This is a new model that puts power into the hands of the artist, creating a dynamic synergy that will inspire great works and attract healthy competition. The proposed merger you have before you helps create those opportunities by boldly addressing the complexity of the existing musical and economic landscapes."

Uh??? Last we heard, Ticketmaster hits fans with ridiculously high charges and Live Nation is a friend to mega-stars, but could care less about artist development. Then again, what should one expect from a man who writes such deep and thoughtful lyrics as:

"Someone will come
To spit the seed
A single weed gets respect"

Ahh! Maybe it's the weed.

** Thanks to Hypebot reader Nancy Prager for the Frontline tip.

Online Concert Site Fabchannel Shuts Down

International online concert channel Fabchannel.com is shutting down after nine years citing "bad economic prospects within the music and online advertising market".  Content including 1000 live shows will be available online until March 13th.

From the announcement:

2 Dirty Little Secrets Of The Ticketing Biz

As the Live Nation Ticketmaster merger winds its way through the approval process both in the U.S. and Europe, two very dirty little secrets are coming to light that music industry insiders have known for years, but have chosen to ignore.

1. KICK BACKS - A large percentage of the heinous fees that Ticketmaster adds to each ticket does not go to pay the company's overhead. It is paid as a kickback to the promoter, the venue or both.  In exchange for signing with Ticketmaster exclusively, the promoter and venue get $1-$3 of each ticket. .

2. FANS NEVER GET THE BEST SEATS - 15 - 20% of the best tickets are withheld by the venue or promoter for insiders and to be re-sold on the secondary market on sites like StubHub.  If the show is hot, the percentages can be even higher.  And with the purchase of  resllerTicketsNow, Ticketmaster is both encouraging and promoting the practice.

These two facts of ticketing life were mentioned in passing at the recent Congressional hearings., but no one, even those that question the merger, seems ready to address them.

Follow Live Nation Tickmaster Senate Hearing Live

This afternoon (Tuesday 2/24 at 2:30 EST) The Senate Judiciary Committee Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights will begin hearings on “The Ticketmaster/Live Nation Merger: What Does it Mean for Consumers and the Future of the Concert Business?”. 

Witnesses include super manager and Ticketmaster CEO Irving Azoff, Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino, Jerry Mickelson, the Chairman of Chicago based indie promoter JAM (who opposes the merger) and David Bellow, a senior fellow at The Center for American Progress will all testify.  House hearings follow on Thursday.

Follow the proceedings live via webcast here. Check back this afternoon for updates.

Congress Looks At Live Nation Ticketmaster Merger

IRVING AZOFF, MICHAEL RAPINO & JERRY MICKELSON TO TESTIFY

Scrutiny of the proposed merger of Live Nation and Ticketmaster takes center stage this week as both the House and Senate hold Congressional hearings. 

The Senate Judiciary Committee Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights begins hearings on Tuesday. Uber-manager and Ticketmaster CEO Irving Azoff, Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino, Jerry Mickelson, the Chairman of Chicago based indie promoter  JAM and David Bellow, a Senior Fellow at The Center for American Progress will all testify.  The House hearings follow on Thursday.

Analyst: Merger Will Lead To Double Digit Ticket Price Increases

Yesterday Hypebot shared 6 Predictions For Live Nation Ticketmaster, but paidContent's Rory Maher went beyond predictions and did a detailed analysis of how Live Nation and Ticketmaster were likely to make the merger worthwhile to stockholders. Based on annual and quarterly reports and some fairly sound assumptions Maher concluded that double digit ticket price increases are inevitable.

 Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) margins are now about 7%. How can they drive that number higher?

• Ticket price increases of 2 - 8% generate margin improvement of between  -0.8% and +1.3%
• Ticket price increases of 10% leas to margin improvement of  more than 2%
• 15% ticket price increases bring profit margins of 3.6%

"The bottom line is that if the merger fails to create incremental returns for Live Nation Entertainment, consumers win but shareholders lose. If the merger does generate enough incremental returns, on the other hand, shareholders win and consumers lose. I’m putting my money behind the shareholders."

Azoff On Why Ticketmaster Merged With Live Nation

"This merger will create a pipeline for all rights holders to reach their consumers, whether it is our team, an artist or a record company.

It is time that our business delivered forward thinking marketing solutions and we intend to do just that."

- from Tuesday's investor conference call.

What do you think of the merger? Vote here.

6 Predictions For Live Nation Ticketmaster

1. The deal will be the source of much hand wringing and government scrutiny, but it will be approved.
2. LN's Michael Rapino will not see 2010 at the combined company.  He's a great young exec, but no match for Diller and Azoff.
3. Ticket fees will increasingly be included in ticket prices as a way to calm consumer distrust, but it will mean higher rather than lower overall prices.
4. Secondary ticketing will be under the microscope but continue to thrive both officially (TicketsNow) and in the shadows via competitors. Ultimately, it's all about supply and demand.
5. The combined databases will turn out to be the real goldmine of the deal. Watch for more up-selling of merchandise, parking, hotel rooms and more.
6. Music sales alongside tickets will happen slowly at first, but before the end of the year the major labels will be begging for a fledged download store integrated within the new Live Nation Entertainment's sites.

More: Merger Done, Government Scrutiny To Follow, Vote: What Do You Think Of The Merger?

A Ticket Reseller Reacts To The Live Nation Tickemaster Merger

OP-ED: This potential merger will take an industry that thrives on taking advantage of consumers and make it even more attainable for unconscionable practices to become the norm.

Ticketmaster and Live Nation thrive in the shadows and are forced to find creative ways to keep a wide group of stakeholders happy and fed. Questionable service fees used to do the job, but with the potential ability of directing significant ticket inventory (which this merger will allow them to exclusively control) into a secondary exchange. you have some powerful groups salivating at the thought of keeping these revenues in their pocket: This is the dirty little secret of the deal and is a substantive issue that regulators and fans should be aware of.

Poll: What Do You Think Of The Live Nation Ticketmaster Merger?

Online Surveys & Market Research

An Angry Springsteen Opposes Live Nation Ticketmaster Merger

Bruce Springsteen's "Working On A Dream" topped the weekly album charts with 224,000 first week sales according to Nielson Soundscan. But his concert fans were at the center of a controversy sparked by a Ticketmaster campaign pointing buyers to higher priced seats at their own resales broker TicketsNow even while regular seats were still available.

The fans and Springsteen camp cried fowl. "Some artists or managers may not perceive there to be a conflict between having the distributor of their tickets in effect 'scalping' those same tickets through a secondary company like TicketsNow - we do," the boss and his team wrote on his site and went on to openly oppose the merger of Ticketmaster and Live Nation.

"The one thing that would make the current ticket situation even worse for the fan than it is now would be Ticketmaster and Live Nation coming up with a single system, thereby returning us to a near monopoly situation in music ticketing," wrote Springsteen and manager Jon Landau. "Several newspapers are reporting on this story right now. If you, like us, oppose that idea, you should make it known to your representatives."

Those following the merger talks also saw the incident as a reminder of just how tricky running a vertically integrated concert, ticket and management company might be. New Ticketmaster CEO Irving Azoff tried to calm the tempest with this letter:

An Open Letter of Apology to Bruce Springsteen, Jon Landau and the entire Springsteen Tour Team:

Live Nation & Ticketmaster Near Merger

Live Nation & Ticketmaster are near a merger according to sources sited in today's Wall Street Journal. The move would combine the world's top concert promoter and the largest ticketing firm. Ticketmaster also owns a huge stake in Irving Azoff's uber-management firm Front Line. The deal which does not have final approval of either board would not involve cash and could be announced as early as next week.
 
ANALYSIS: While Live Nation would appear to be the stronger of the two companies, it's not yet clear who would up as top dog in this deal. From Azoff to Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino and all the way down the alphabet to promoter Danny Zelesko, the names involved are a powerful and cantankerous "Who's Who" of live music. The smart money has to be on Azoff, who just added Ticketmaster CEO to his business card, as the front-runner to lead the combined company. Insiders say its hard to imagine him doing any deal that didn't leave himself on top.

While early reports are that he would stay with the company. the merger might be bad news for Rapino, who has really just started to realize his vision of a unified, smarter and more consumer friendly concert industry. Live Nation's new ticketing platform which floundered last week during a Phish on-sale, would also seem a redundancy  The merger could also explain rumors that Randy Phillips may be leaving his post as head of concert rival AEG since the giants are all lining up against him.

REMEMBER THE FAN?

Competition is always a good thing and at the top this means less of it. Talk of lower ticketing fees just went out the window. But as the big boys get fatter, it also makes room for younger leaner competitors.  Just as a new middle class of artists is beginning to find its footing in a post major label/major media age, a new middle class of concert promoters may find its footing as well.

Video: MPTrax Offers Online Live Booking Solution

What is MPTrax? from MPTrax on Vimeo.

Billions Agency Adds Artist Management Via New Partnership

David T. Viecelli, President of booking agency Billions and manager Alex Kadvan have launched Lever and Beam, a new NYC based artist management company. The two partners and their staff now provide personal management for Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings, St. Vincent, Antibalas, Southern Culture on the Skids, Budos Band and Naomi Shelton & The Gospel Queens.

Help Me Build A Ticket Stimulus Package

HELP! As many of you know, in addition to writing Hypebot and consulting, I also help run boutique booking agency Skyline Music. Despite some press reports to the contrary, live music is being effected by the global economic downturn just like the rest of the music industry.  We're hearing daily from artists and promoters that ticket sales are down even for many established artists, and most expect things to get worse.

To help fight soft sales, my Skyline associates and I are working on something we're calling the Ticket Stimulus Package.  The goal is to provide promoters, venues, artists and fans with free or low cost tools to help sell tickets. The emphasis is on digital tools, but not restricted to them. All must be scalable to serve all of the 40 artists on our roster. 

How do you think we can help stimulate ticket sales? To learn what promoters thought, we sent out a survey to select buyers. Click below to see it.  Which ideas do you think are better than others? You can cut and paste it into the comments section and answer all the questionnaire if you like. Or better yet, what ideas are we forgetting?

What's in it for you? Please, take the best ideas and use them.   

Bonnaroo Announces 2009 Dates With A Chuckle

Ticketmaster Experiments With Lower Fees

Long criticized for excessive ticketing fees, the newly renamed Ticketmaster Entertainment is experimenting with lower charges on some tickets. "We're already testing the program on certain upcoming tour on-sales," Ticketmaster CEO Sean Moriarty said during an earnings call. Under the plan, fans who use Ticketmaster's electronic delivery system TicketFast would not be charged additional service fees.

High ticket fees have come under scrutiny again as a way to lower costs for consumers affected or frightened by the economic downturn. Implicit, however, in lower fees is also the threat of lower profits for venues and promoters who have long relied on privately receiving a percentage of those fees from Ticketmaster.

Expect more experimentation and new initiatives as Irving Azoff takes control of Ticketmaster.  In fact, among the first no-fee events is a New Orleans concert with the Azoff managed Eagles.

How The Net Is Changing The Live Music Business

I sit on the Visionary Chair Committee of Reed Midem's digital music forum MidemNet and have begun contributing along with Ted Cohen, Gerd Leonhard, Peter Jenner and a few others to the MidemNet blog. My first contribution to this lively global discussion looks at how some internet based companies are re-shaping how live music is booked, marketed and even enjoyed.

Join me on the MidemNet Blog for a quick tour of the live music internet landscape and help me make the post better by adding your favorite digital companies serving live music. (more)