Live Nation about to snaffle Lollapalooza

As if the last decade or so hasn't been enough to remove any sense of anything countercultural at all about Lollapalooza, Live Nation are about to take a controlling stake in its parent company, C3.

Yeah. Ticketmaster will soon be bringing you the 'Looza.

LiveNation pull out of Hyde Park

LiveNation, who have held the contract for running gigs in Hyde Park, have pulled out of the bidding process to carry on. And they're not doing so with good grace:

Live Nation has written a formal letter of complaint about the tender and bid process for the new contract.

It is understood that the letter raises issues such as noise – in July Bruce Springsteen and Sir Paul McCartney's microphones were switched off during a duet due to curfew issues. Other issues understood to have been highlighted by Live Nation include crowd safety considerations in shutting off Park Lane and unrealistic revenue assumptions.

It might just be that Hyde Park isn't a place where you can effectively put on concerts without causing so much disruption that it's impossible to do it well.

LiveNation explains that Springsteen axe was for public safety

LiveNation has offered an explanation for why the Springsteen gig was cut short:

"It was unfortunate that the three hour plus performance by Bruce Springsteen was stopped right at the very end but the curfew is laid down by the authorities in the interest of the public's health and safety. Road closures around Hyde Park are put in place at specific times to make sure everyone can exit the area in safety."

You've got to love the "three hour plus" bit there - you can almost hear the sighing of "how much more did you want?" - but the suggestion that letting them get to the end of Twist And Shout would have meant the road safety measures would have been torn down seems a little unlikely.

Presumably the real reason would have been fines from Westminster City Council?

Madonna 360 degree contract becomes more 270, 260-ish

Back in 2007, you'll recall that amid much hoopla, Madonna signed a ten year deal with LiveNation for everything:

The 10-year deal encompasses all of Madonna's future music and music-related businesses, including the exploitation of the Madonna brand, new studio albums, touring, merchandising, fan clubs/Web sites, DVDs, music-related television and film projects and associated sponsorship agreements. This model will address all of Madonna's music ventures as a total entity for the first time in her career.

"The real story here is while everyone's talking 360 [degree deals], we were quietly building the services to do it right," Rapino says. "We have spent a considerable amount of resources building this Artist Nation division first and then going after artists second. Madonna would not have done a 360 deal with us just because of our touring capability. We had to prove to her and others that we have been working on and built a very good execution capacity at Artist Nation."

Surprising, then, that she's just signed a three album deal with Universal.

Perhaps LiveNation weren't quite as good at being a record label as they thought they were. Perhaps they should have spent less time on the execution capacity, and focused on the records?

Irving Azoff makes it clear LiveNation aren't putting on a big show

Hey, don't be all crying: it turns out that Barry Diller always planned to step down from LiveNation. So says, erm, still-at-LiveNation executive chairman Irving Azoff:

As usual the press reports are ridiculous. It was always Barry Diller's
intention to step down from LNE COB during first year after TM/LN
merger. I look forward to continue to work with him during his time on
the board. I thank him for the many years of dedication and loyalty to
everyone at TM.

Yes, in pretty much the same way David Miliband was always hoping to be a backbench MP, I'll bet.

Of course, Azoff needs to tell people that this was all a secret plan and not really the outcome of him and Diller falling out. Oh, but Diller has also been playing nicely as he attempts to negotiate his severance package. Sorry, confirmed the official line. Sorry, agreed that this was always the plan:

“I have always said, since the merger of Ticketmaster and Live Nation, that I only planned to stay as chairman through the transition and integration of the two companies. It’s been almost a year and I informed the board today that while there was no rush, the board should start the process now to appoint a new chairman.”

It was always the plan. All he wanted to do was oversee the union, and then he'd leave happily. He always said he'd do that. Always. And this was exactly how he'd planned to have his departure announced. Always.

LiveNation management tantrums creates opening

Barry Diller - who, in his head at least, was responsible for the megalithic monoplistish LiveNation-Ticketmaster - has walked out the company in a huff and a half:

Barry Diller, the media mogul who claimed credit for the merger of Live Nation and Ticketmaster, said Tuesday he would resign as chairman of the merged company after a boardroom power struggle with another media giant and director, John Malone, according to a person with knowledge of the situation.

Diller's resignation letter was eventually accepted by the company after he had coughed up a five pound processing fee and a three quid convenience charge.

What happens to all those booking fees?

Hypebot points out the bonuses paid to the pre-merger LiveNation executives:

CEO Michael Rapino - $3 million

Executive Chairman Irving Azoff - $2 million

Kathy Willard, EVP - $1 million

Michael Rowles, EVP & General Counsel - $500,000

That's before they merged with the only serious competition. I wonder what everyone at TicketNation will be taking home next year?

Ticketmaster/Live Nation: Go on, do it

The age of pretend choice in major live events ticketing is drawing to a close, as America follows Britian in indicated governmental relaxity with a Ticketmaster/LiveNation merger.

The Justice Department have pretended to be all strict and pretend to insist on countermeasures:

Under the proposed settlement, Ticketmaster must sell its Paciolan ticketing unit to Comcast-Spectacor which has already signed a letter of intent, or to another company approved by the Justice Department, the agency said.

Additionally, the merged company would be barred from retaliating against any venue owner that uses another company's ticketing or promotional services and must license its primary ticketing software to Anschutz Entertainment Group, the Justice Department said.

Ticketmaster are said to be happy to do this, just as soon as they've jacked up the mysterious booking fee to maximum.

Ticketmaster: Competition Commission smile

It's the most wonderful time of the year; the time when people slip out unpopular announcements in the hope that nobody notices.

Like the Competition Commission's decision that, actually, the creation of a Ticketmaster/LiveNation behemoth won't crush the customers under its weight:

[A]fter lobbying from the two companies which argued that critics had overstated their influence in the music industry, the commission dropped its opposition. Christopher Clarke, deputy chair of the commission, admitted it was "unusual" for the competition watchdog to change its mind in this way.

A key plank in the commission's ruling was the damage that could be caused to German ticketing firm CTS Eventim, which signed a deal with Live Nation to expand into the UK in 2007. Now, though, the commission has accepted Live Nation's argument that CTS will not lose out, and that it would be complicated and unfair to force the merged entity to sell off its UK ticketing arm.

Oh, it would be complicated, would it? Oh, how frightfully rotten that would be. You wouldn't want to make the otherwise completely zipless union of two totally separate companies to become a little complicated, would you? Not if the only thing it would do would be to stop a massive corporation stitching up the live music market in the UK.

ITunes adds another string

Apple has announced that iTunes is going to start selling live albums. In order to make this happen, Apple is cosying up to LiveNation, and the prices come in slightly evil tones, too. $13 for a live concert video? You could almost afford to go to see a gig for that.

Ticketmaster/Live Nation - not so fast...

Given that, working on their own, Ticketmaster and LiveNation hardly work in the consumer's interest, it's perhaps unsurprising that the Competition Commission has come out against them uniting into one near-Monopoly.

LiveNation: Top promotions

I'm sure Ultravox will be delighted at the well-positioned advert which appeared in today's G2 Guardian supplement, promoting their UK tour. It had all the dates, clearly listed, complete with contact details. It even had the extra date, added due to audience demand, at the Roundhouse.

Money well spent.

The only slight cloud would be that the Roundhouse date was the final night of the tour, and it took place yesterday evening, so LiveNation probably didn't need to place the advert at all. But still: details, dear boy, details.

Gordon in the morning: I love Kasabian

Gordon, we know, likes Kasabian. He really, really likes them. Look, here he is, introducing them on stage at the Teenage Cancer Trust gig last week.

He really, really loves them:

I’ve also had a sneaky listen to the band’s new album, The West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum, out on June 8, and it should put them in the major league. Tracks such as Vlad The Impaler, Thick As Thieves, Fire and Underdog will be the songs of the summer in 2009.

It's nice to see Gordon writing about music rather than breasts, so let's not let him see us snickering at the suggestion that, apparently, everything on the album is going to become a summer anthem, or that the perennial Championship makeweights are in with a shot at the "major league".

Because Gordon really, really loves Kasabian:

The video for Fire will be a belter too. The boys will be in Joburg, South Africa, this week firing a ferocious arsenal of weapons for it.

Got to love the casual use of "Joburg", which is only slightly undermined by the explanation that it's the one in South Africa. Firing weapons, you say?

Speaking backstage at the sell-out fundraiser, Tom told me: "It’s going to be mental, proper Dirty Harry stuff."

Good to see that The Sun has decided to stop worrying about gun crime, and young people being given the impression that guns are cool.

Naturally, Gordon's not so blinded by love to realise that giving the lead story both online and in the paper to Kasabian will raise eyebrows unless he can find a great story upon which to hang it. So, from where comes the promise of the headline:

Serge of interest

And so it would seem:

HIP-HOP titans JAY-Z and KANYE WEST have offered their services to KASABIAN.

Really?

Well, not quite - there's some vague interest in picking up the Kasabian from "the music publishing wing of Jay-Z’s record label" and an even vaguer "Kanye has made enquiries about working on new material with the band’s songwriter SERGE PIZZORNO." Gordon's story doesn't even mention the name of Jay-Z's publishing company, or that it's a partnership deal with Stargate, or that it's a subsidiary of LiveNation. 'Large cash rich company investigates taking on as many publishing deals as possible' isn't quite as exciting, is it?

It's so hard with boys, isn't it? With a woman, you can just grab a photo, lob on a headline like this:

Kel's sea cups

and do a gentle waffle, and that's your article:

My pictures show Kelly [Brook] in the Caribbean doing what she does best – baring all in a bikini and running along the beach for a magazine shoot.

How do you bare all when you're wearing a bikini?

Why there should be no concerns about LiveNation and Ticketmaster merging

After all, it's not like you can't trust them, is it?

Take, for example, their work in New Jersey, where LiveNation decided to bring in a six dollar parking fee per ticket for the PNC Bank Arts Center.

Yes, that's six dollars per ticket. So if four of you go to a gig in the same car, you end up paying twenty four dollars for parking.

The New York Daily News asked why everyone was charged six bucks to park a car - even if they intended to arrive at the venue by taxi, or on foot, or by hovershoes. So LiveNation took the six dollar parking fee off.

And, erm, put the prices of all tickets up by six bucks instead.

And then, when that was noticed, reintroduced the parking fee.

LiveNation reckons it's always been there, though:

"We have always operated under a system at PNC Bank Arts Center where parking is charged as a per-ticket fee. This policy is in place to alleviate traffic issues ... to ensure that all fans can enter the venue in a timely and safe manner," a spokesman said.

Really? How exactly does charging every single person going six dollars "alleiviate traffic issues"? How does a flat fee have any influence on people entering the venue in a timely or safe way?

If the idea was to use a fee to control the flow of cars arriving at the venue, wouldn't you have to make the fee voluntarily? Because otherwise, if people are foreced to pay a parking fee, won't they think 'if I've paid for it, I might as well use it' and be more likely to drive?

Of course, LiveNation know this. Their spokesman knows that his explanation makes no sense. But it's not like he's going to admit "yeah, we're grabbing cash because we're chiselers. What you gonna do about it?"

Only a massive monopoly ticketbeast can save music, says massive monopoly ticketbeast

The proposals to merge Ticketmaster and LiveNation into a single focus of hatred and disgust have come before the wise lawmakers on Capitol Hill, with attempts to save the entire US economy taking back seat to hearings on the plan:

The subcommittee on antitrust, competition policy and consumer rights used the approximately 90-minute hearing to discuss how the possible merger could affect ticket prices, the impact it would have on new ticketing businesses wanting to enter the marketplace and how it might expose sales data from rival promoters, among other issues.

They also crammed in a few questions on what it would mean for Guam, the likelihood of life on other planets and why gorillas don't keep evolving into people. After all, you'd find it difficult to fill an hour and a half with just the future of live music.

The CEOs of the two companies went to Washington, to tell everyone how great their new world would be made. Live Nation president/CEO Michael Rapino and Ticketmaster CEO Irving Azoff can hardly wait to be allowed to make out in public. It's not just a new world they're proposing - it's a whole different world. One with different physics in:

"Artists don't sit around and say, 'Let's raise prices,'" said Azoff, who also heads up Ticketmaster's Front Line Management, which has a roster of more than 200 acts. "If we're successful in doing this, I for sure think we'll be able to show that ticket prices will go down, because it will create a bigger pot of money for artists from other avenues in their careers."

Ah yes. Because merging a giant promotion company with a giant ticket agency is an action which generates large pots of money from out of nowhere. Like when you open a self-seal envelope in the dark and it makes blue light. That's exactly the way this will make money.

Let's buy Azoff's starling claim for just a moment, and imagine Kid Rock and his manager getting ready to set prices for his shows next summer.

- Hey, Kid, you were going to charge thirty bucks a ticket, right?
- Yeah
- Did you know that the geological collision of Ticketmaster and LiveNation has created huge new pots of money?
- No... can we have some of that money?
- Yes. Yes, we can.
- Right. So... given that we've got all this new money, do we want to drop the prices of tickets any?
- Do we have to? Because of the new money?
- Well... no. But we could. We could share our good fortune with the fans.
[long, awkward pause]
- Okay, thirty bucks a ticket it is.
- Plus booking fee.
- Plus booking fee.

And that fee is where the real trouble lies. Sure, bands might not put up their prices simply because Evil and Evil have become Consolidated Evil, but surely the whole being-less-competition-in-the-music-ticketing-business might very well force up the fees being charged on top of the ticket price?

I could be wrong, though. Apparently the concert-goers will welcome their new twin-faced, one-bodied overlords with in-street merry jigging:

Rapino said the combined companies would not hurt music fans or rival businesses. "This deal would benefit them as we spur competition and innovation," he said. "If we don't make significant changes to the business model and if we don't build new structures, we may be back here in the future for another hearing on the death of the American music industry."

Nothing spurs competition like having a single, unassailable corporate monolith at the heart of an industry. Who does TicketNation think is going to be competing with them, as they suck up every ticket deal for every venue of any size in the US? Does he think that the free market will suddenly spur everyone to travel to Boise to go and see jugbands as a result of the merger?

Still: you've got it there in black and white - if you don't let the executives share a board table, you will kill music. Think hard, and picture a world where LiveNation does a bit of ticketing and mostly promotes, and Ticketmaster does a bit of management but mostly charges scandalous mark-ups on ticket prices. What does that world sound like? It's silent, isn't it? Even the birds will stop singing if this merger is allowed to fail.

It's as serious as that.

Still, there's all those other ticketing businesses:

Azoff argued that the merger could bring new opportunities for existing ticketing companies. "We've been told and we believe that if this merger were approved, that many of our larger clients would opt out," he said, pointing out that Ticketmaster has about 11,000 clients. "From hearing all the comments that I hear, I think that so many people would be upset about this merger that I'm sure a lot of our clients would leave."

Not, of course, that anyone is upset at the merger. Azoff is quite blase about the prospect of other clients running to those other ticket agencies, such as... uh, the other ticket places. Almost as if, ooh, his new company would run a load of large venues, represent the management of several big bands and promote a sizeable chunk of America's live music.

As a general rule of thumb, if a manager is prepared to stand up in public and virtually hope that customers might take their business elsewhere, the customers are unlikely to be blue chip.

Some promoters are worried that Ticketmaster having a big promotions business of their own would leave their data open to being shown to the competition:

Rapino assured the subcommittee that Live Nation Entertainment's concert division "would not have access to the ticketing division data. He added, "the concert division should have no access to anything [...] any other promoter does in any building or anything in the ticketing business."

And, if we've learned one thing in the last twelve months, you can always rely on a massive corporation to be nothing other than totally trustworthy.

Two become one: LiveNation, Ticketmaster complete merger

The board are still deciding if they'll just have one giant boot to tread on the face of gig-going humanity forever, or if they'll continue to use two smaller boots, but the Ticketmaster - LiveNation merger is go. The surprise? They're dropping the Ticketmaster name from the new company:

The combined company will be called Live Nation Entertainment.

The combined entity will have to try and somehow convince competition authorities that this isn't anti-competitive; if they can manage that they'll form into a single blob.

In future, only one company will gouge you for booking fees

The proposed merger of LiveNation and Ticketmaster into one single near-monopoly booking agency does have something going for it: with just one company, Live Nation Ticketmaster, to rail at, it's going to leave a fist free for waving at someone else.

Download tells punters: We're your bitches

Aware of its position low on the pecking order of UK festivals, Download organisers are responding to audience demands for this year's festival.

Yes, sadly, this is actual news: festival organisers listening to the people who pay their ticket prices and giving them what they want. And even that wouldn't be happening if it wasn't for the recession and the over-supply of festival events:

[Vice-president of music at Live Nation, Andy] Copping admits that festivals are being forced to listen to their fans, many of whom will inevitably scale back their spending on music this year.

He added: "You can't just find a bit of grass, put up a stage, put bands on and expect people to turn up.

"They expect far more these days, if they're going be spending a hundred pounds a ticket, you've got to offer them a really good deal."

The really, really good deal - of not charging them a hundred quid in the first place - doesn't seem to have occurred to him. There's something almost wistful in his acceptance that, oddly, people aren't going to break their budgets to be treated like particularly low-standard cattle.

So, what can this year's Downloaders look forward to?

They include cutting the distance between stages and campgrounds and improving the toilet facilities.

Seriously, LiveNation needed an online forum to tell them that. That must have been an eye-opening day when the results were fed back: "Hey, it turns out that people don't want to have to piss in a small plastic box filled to the bubbling brim with other people's shit and smeared with blood and puke." You couldn't buy that sort of insight.

Live Nation claims environmental issues are top of the agenda for some fans this year and it is looking at ways to improve waste management at the site.

In other words, it's going to tell the support acts to not complain when bottles of wee come flying at them.

Thanks for the shares, but Bono wants his money

Back when LiveNation signed up U2, part of the deal was a large chunk of LiveNation stock being transferred to the Dutch band. Presumably LiveNation hoped that this would give Bono and his chums a sharper interest in performing well - if they do well, the company does well; if the company does well, they will do well. A virtuous circle.

Unfortunately, U2 have decided they'll rather have the cash, and have flogged off their shares. Even more unpleasantly for LiveNation, the company had promised to guarantee the stock would be worth at USD25million - a guarantee which might have been wise when the deal was struck, but which is looking a little sick now that the markets have got troubles.

Indeed, the stock has plummeted so far that LiveNation are going to have to find USD19million for U2.

It's not entirely clear that it makes sense to suddenly pitch up to your employer and demand - in straightened times - that they find millions and millions of dollars from somewhere; it might be thought of as a little self-defeating to give financial problems to the company to whom you look for investment in your career. Perhaps U2 really, badly need the money. Or maybe they were just afraid that the stock value of LiveNation could have wiped out the company before they got a chance to cash it in. Could it be that U2 know what a stinker the next U2 album will be?

Gordon in the morning: Here you are, Robbie

Gordon Smart's continuing use of Bizarre as Robbie Williams' personal cheerleader reaches a new low today, with a story that suggests, ooh, that Williams could sign a huge contract once he's free from EMI after the next album:

But now the record industry is queuing up to sign him once his EMI deal ends — laden with loads of dosh. A source revealed: �Rudebox was not Robbie’s greatest work and things went very quiet for him afterwards.

�He went into rehab and has spent time getting his head together.

�But now his next deal could be a record-breaker.

�Word is getting out that his new album is sounding brilliant and the Take That reunion coverage has helped.

�Live Nation would be very keen. They have recently signed MADONNA and U2 on massive deals. They could give Robbie a huge contract which would include his releases, live dates and all the extras that accompany that.�

(Incidentally, isn't it a little pathetic that the Sun is incapable for publishing a story without munging the quote marks into these strange � things?)

The "source" - who, clearly, is someone trying to talk up the value of a Williams contract - seems to be hoping against hope: LiveNation have recently had a reshuffling of management which makes them cooler on the idea of giving large sums of cash over to acts. Even if they were still doing enormous 360 degree deals, why would they be interested in a "record-breaking" deal with someone who couldn't sell a record in America if it came with a free Taco Bell burrito on the cover? If Williams' team really wants a large deal from LiveNation, they'd be better off trying to find a credulous US journalist to run their press releases. That they can't find one, and they're wasting their time tickling the London papers, shows the problem they have.