Live Nation (events promoter)

Business

A prior incarnation of Live Nation, known as SFX Entertainment, was formed in the 1990s by media executive Robert F. X. Sillerman. Its business model involved the acquisition of regional concert promoters, consolidating them into a single national company. Sillerman sold SFX to Clear Channel Communications in 2000 for $4.4 billion; the Clear Channel Entertainment division was spun off in 2005 to form Live Nation.

Annually, Live Nation promotes or produces over 22,000 events, including music concerts, with total attendance exceeding 50 million—more than the NBA, NFL, and NHL combined. As of September 30, 2005, Live Nation owned or operated 117 venues, consisting of 75 US and 42 international venues. These venues include 39 amphitheatres, 58 theatres, 14 clubs, 4 arenas and 2 festival sites. In addition, through equity, booking or similar arrangements Live Nation has the right to book events at 33 additional venues.

SFX deals

October 1996: Delsener/Slater Enterprises, New York City

February 1997: Meadows Music Theater, Hartford, Connecticut

March 1997: Sunshine Promotions, Indianapolis

December 1997: Bill Graham Presents, San Francisco; Contemporary Group, St. Louis; and Concert/Southern Promotions, Atlanta

December 1997: Pace Entertainment Group and Pavilion Partners, Houston

January 1998: Westbury Music Fair, Westbury, New York

March 1998: Avalon Entertainment Partners, Los Angeles

May 1998: Don Law's Blackstone Entertainment, Boston; Oakdale Theatre, Wallingford, Connecticut

August 1998: Cellar Door Companies, Fort Lauderdale

August 1998: Magicworks Entertainment, Miami Beach

August 1998: American Artists, Boston

August 1998: DiCesare Engler Productions, Pittsburgh

January 1999: The Entertainment Group, Chicago

March 1999: Seven venues from the Nederlander Organization

April 1999: The Next Adventure, Toronto

April 1999: TourVen

May 1999: A.H. Enterprises, Los Angeles

July 1999: Livent, Toronto

July 1999: Candid Productions

August 1999: Apollo Leisure Group and Barry Clayman Corporation, United Kingdom

September 1999: Cardenas Fernandez & Associates, Chicago

September 1999: Midland Concert Promotions, United Kingdom

September 1999: EMA Telstar, Stockholm

October 1999: Mojo Works, Netherlands

March 2000: Electric Factory Concerts, Philadelphia

May 2000: Jujamcyn Productions, Minneapolis

May 2000: Core Audience Entertainment, Canada

2001: Evening Star Productions, Phoenix

Deals

In October 2007, Live Nation announced a new contract with pop singer Madonna throughout the next decade after her leaving Warner Music and Warner Bros. She will be the founding recording artist for the new music division Live Nation Artists, formerly Artist Nation. In July 2008, Shakira signed an estimated $70–100 million contract with Live Nation.

In January, 2008, Live Nation sold its North American theatrical business (including the Broadway Across America business) to Key Brand Entertainment for $90.4 million. Key Brand Entertainment is a private investment company owned by British theater producer John Gore and led by senior entertainment industry executive Tom McGrath.

In April 2008, a deal between Jay-Z and Live Nation for $152 million was confirmed. The deal covers financing of Jay-Z's own entertainment venture, live shows, tours and future recordings for the next 10 years. Blueprint 3 was distributed by Atlantic Records, while his label, Roc Nation, is being distributed by Universal Music Group.

In June 2013, Insomniac Events, a promoter focused on electronic dance music, announced a major "creative partnership" with Live Nation, giving the promoter access to Live Nation's resources while remaining an independent company. Live Nation did not take any ownership stake in Insomniac.

House of Blues

In 2006 Live Nation acquired House of Blues. Current locations of the House of Blues include:
(in state order alphabetically)

Corporate governance

Current members of the board of directors of Live Nation are: Ari Emanuel, Jeffrey T. Hinson, L. Lowry Mays, Randall T. Mays, Connie McCombs McNab, James S. Kahan, Ted Enloe, Mark Shapiro, and Michael Rapino.

Live Nation International Music and Live Nation Artists

Live Nation is currently constructing a physical recording label, Live Nation Artists, which will be a division of Live Nation International Music. The company is expected to become a major rival against Sony Music, Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group with artists such as Madonna, U2, Shakira, Jay-Z and Nickelback.

As of July 30, 2008, CEO Michael Rapino is considering doing licensing deals on an artist-by-artist basis, a source inside Live Nation said. Under that scenario, Warner Music Group could end up handling the marketing, promotion and distribution of albums by the very acts that defected from it to join Live Nation: Nickelback and Madonna. "Rapino wants to outsource everything," said a second source close to the situation. "He doesn't want to build an infrastructure or carry any overhead." The move is mirrored after the "rent-a-system" model used in Hollywood, whereby one studio produces a movie but licenses all the other functions to another studio that already has a distribution and marketing infrastructure.

Live Nation's talks represented the latest retrenchment from the strategy of former chairman Michael Cohl, who sought to transform the touring giant into a multi-faceted powerhouse, including a record company. News of the potential outsourcing move followed the dismissal of industry veterans Bob Ezrin, Bob Cahill and Bill Hein, all of whom were Artist Nation employees hired by Cohl to create a label infrastructure for Live Nation's newly signed acts. Instead of banking all the upside on album sales, as was once envisioned with these so-called "360 deals," Live Nation would likely collect a less lucrative outsourcing royalty of between 25 percent and 35 percent, based on other industry licensing deals. It would then be responsible for using that money to pay the artist's royalty - a fee that, at the superstar level, can come close to equaling the licensing royalty the company is apt to get from a label.

On 31 March 2008, it was confirmed that Live Nation signed a 12-year deal with U2 worth an estimated $100 million (£70 million). The deal includes Live Nation controlling the band's merchandise, sponsoring and their official website. In a contractual agreement with Live Nation signed in March 2008, the parties agreed that the band would receive $25 million for 1.6 million shares of the company; as of 17 December 2008, those shares were worth only just over $6 million. It was reported on 18 December 2008 that Live Nation, honoring their financial commitment, bought back the shares at a loss of $19 million. The company had intended to recoup the cost of signing U2 with their most recent album, No Line on the Horizon. No Line on the Horizon achieved multi platinum status in the international market and has sold over 5 million albums to date.

Top executives

Michael Rapino - Chief Executive Officer

Ben Weeden - Chief Operating Officer, North American Music

Kathy Willard - Chief Financial Officer and Executive Vice President

Paul Latham - Chief Operating Officer, Live Nation International Music

Source:

United States

Live Nation owns, operates and/or exclusively books 135 live entertainment venues, including 43 in Europe, along with producing high profile events such as Super Bowl halftime shows. It also represents major music artists.

Owned Monster Jam, a promoter of monster truck races and other indoor motorsports. Live Nation also owned several trucks and the rights to several trucks running at these events, including Grave Digger, Superman and Maximum Destruction. Now owned by Feld Entertainment, divested in September 2008.

Previously promoted THQ World Supercross GP, National Arenacross Series, IFMA Freestyle Motocross, and IHRA Drag Racing, before selling its entire motorsports division to Feld Entertainment.

Produces sporting events: 84 Lumber Classic of Pennsylvania; Legg Mason Tennis Classic; ADT Skills Challenge; American Century Golf Championship.

Produces concerts and festivals: Great New York State Fair, Ozzfest, Jägermeister Music Tour, and Music Midtown (Atlanta) and in the UK Download at Donington, Hyde Park Calling and Wireless Festival. Through its LN/Gaiety subsidiary it also manages the Festival Republic festivals at Reading and Leeds.

In July 2006 Live Nation announced it has entered into a definitive merger agreement to acquire HOB Entertainment, Inc., the operator of the House of Blues chain of music halls and restaurants.

On October 16, 2007, Live Nation announced it signed a $120 million, 10-year global partnership contract with pop artist Madonna who will become the founding artist in its new Artist Nation division. The deal consists of all future music and music-related businesses including albums, concert tours, merchandising, fan club/web site, DVDs, music-related television and film projects, and associated sponsorship agreements.

Live Nation owned the aforementioned Broadway Across America series, divested in January, 2008 to Key Brand Entertainment.

On March 31, 2008, Live Nation announced it signed a 12-year partnership contract with Irish rock band U2, after quitting Island Records, it will expire in 2020.

On April 3, 2008, Live Nation announced it signed a 10-year, $150 million music deal with multi-platinum rap artist, Jay-Z, it will expire in 2018.

In July, 2008, Live Nation announced it signed a 3-album-cycle deal with multi-platinum, Canadian rock band, Nickelback.

Worldwide

Acquired Italian music promoters Milano Concerti and Friends & Partners Agency.

Management of the former Olympic Venues (TOP Turin Olympic Park) in Turin, including the biggest Italian arena PalaOlimpico.

Worldwide subsidiaries include Welldone Agency & Promotion (Finland), dkbMotor (Denmark), EMA Telstar (Sweden) and Gunnar Eide Concerts (Norway).

Live Nation's subsidiary Mojo Concerts is the biggest organiser of concerts in The Netherlands with over 200 concerts and a total of a million visitors a year. Well known festivals include Pinkpop, Lowlands, Arrow Rock Festival and North Sea Jazz.

Owns Clear Channel Entertainment do Brasil Ltda, a Brazilian music promotion and production company

Acquires Music and Entertainment producers GAMERCO, the biggest Spanish promotion and production company.

In the United Kingdom, as Live Nation UK, owns/ manages:

A concert promotion business which promotes large outdoor concerts at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, as well as numerous small and medium concert venues across the country.

Download Festival, Wireless Festival and Hyde Park Calling

A 50.1% stake in Festival Republic, and thus interests in:

Several music festivals, including the production of Glastonbury Festival, Reading and Leeds Festivals, Latitude Festival

Some medium-sized London music venues, including the London Astoria . In March 2007 Live Nation/Gaiety bought a majority share in a further 10 music venues from the Academy Music Group including the Brixton Academy and Shepherds Bush Empire.

Management and Operations at London Wembley Arena, Motorpoint Arena Cardiff, Motorpoint Arena Sheffield, O2 Apollo Manchester and Southampton Guildhall.

A large majority of the UK's biggest regional theatre houses were owned/managed by Live Nation until October 2009 when the majority were sold to ATG, including the Sunderland Empire Theatre, Palace Theatre, Manchester, Grimsby Auditorium, Alexandra Theatre in Birmingham, Lyceum Theatre, London, Edinburgh Playhouse, Liverpool Empire, New Theatre Oxford and Bristol Hippodrome. In addition, the Dominion Theatre, London was managed by Live Nation until October 2009 when it was bought outright by the majority owner Nederlander Dominion Ltd.

In Ireland, Live Nation own The O2, Dublin – formally known as The Point Depot.

In Belgium, Live Nation organises big festivals, like Rock Werchter, Graspop Metal Meeting and I Love Techno

In Canada, Pemberton Festival was launched in July 2008 by Live Nation.

In France, Live Nation organises the Main Square Festival since 2009 as well as a few other shows like Depeche Mode in Liévin in 2010

Proposed merger

On February 10, 2009, Live Nation and Ticketmaster Entertainment announced that they have entered into a definitive merger agreement to create a combined entity, to be called Live Nation Entertainment. Ticketmaster's press release said Live Nation produces live concerts in 57 countries.

The proposal has received regulatory approval in Norway and Turkey.>

In October 2009, the United Kingdom's Competition Commission provisionally ruled against the merger with Ticketmaster. On December 22, 2009, the Competition Commission decided to clear the proposed merger.

Separate regulatory reviews of the proposal continued in the United States and Canada. The United States Department of Justice approved the merger in 2010 subject to review by a federal judge after a 60-day comment period. A condition of the approval, Ticketmaster agreed to license its software to rival Anschutz Entertainment Group, and to sell its subsidiary Paciolan to Comcast Spectacor, Comcast's sporting events subsidiary. The company also agreed not to interfere with competition for the ten year life of the agreement.

Criticism

Bruce Springsteen said "...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".

In a January 25, 2010 press release, the TicketDisaster.org group—a coalition of consumer rights and anti-trust groups—also issued the following statement about the proposed Live Nation-TicketMaster merger:

"Despite its "monopoly-like dominance" controlling 70 to 80 percent of all concert ticket sales, Ticketmaster is unabashedly seeking to grow its empire - all to the detriment of the average fan. Ticketmaster is now trying to dampen competition by merging with Live Nation, the nation's largest concert promoter and second largest primary ticket seller. That merger is coming under heavy fire from consumer and industry groups and Members of Congress, particularly because of the clear anti-consumer and anti-competitive effects.