On The Record

  • One for the Ticketmaster haters in the audience

    August 24, 2007 @ 8:39 am | by Jim Carroll

    It seems that monster concert promoters Live Nation (who, as you all know because you follow these things really closely, are in cahoots with our very own DMC, sorry MCD Concerts) have decided to end their deal with the much loved ticket selling service.

    Per the New York Times (who thankfully care as much about this kind of thing as I do):

    Signaling a shake-up in the financial structure of the live entertainment business, Ticketmaster said yesterday that it did not expect to extend its long-term contract with Live Nation, the world’s biggest concert promoter.

    The split between two of the biggest powers in live entertainment comes amid a wide-ranging tussle over the division of money generated from ticket service charges and control of customer data. It also comes as the sale — and resale — of tickets has emerged as a coveted source of revenue in the music business as CD sales plunge.

    So what does this mean? Well, for a start, it means a bit of a blow for Ticketmaster’s bottom line.

    Sales from shows put on by Live Nation and House of Blues accounted for more than 15 percent of Tickemaster’s roughly $1 billion in revenue last year, according to an executive briefed on the company’s affairs.

    It also means that Live Nation may have to set up their ticket selling service. Ticketmistress anyone?

    Live Nation now faces the prospect of having to expand its own small internal ticketing operation or form a partnership with another outside ticketing agency. Live Nation took a step toward expanding its ticketing operation with the acquisition of Musictoday, a company that runs artist fan clubs and handles direct sales of tickets.

    Expect this move to cause significant waves in how you buy your ticket for shows in 2008. And yes, you’ll still have to pay those “convenience charges”.

    • 3 Comments »

    1.
    August 24, 2007
    8:52 am

    This won’t make tickets cheaper. There’s only one way the prices can go, up. All this does is give our service charge to Live Nation etc. rather than Ticketmaster. I imagine MCD will follow suit…

    Comment by Daniel
    2.
    August 24, 2007
    10:37 am

    Obviously this is not good news and it easily could be a case of better the devil you know.

    Are Live Nation still owned by Clear Channel or are they “independent”

    I would say their powers that be would love access to information provided by people buying tickets online.

    Juicy Juicy info for target markets for all their operations.

    Comment by sean o'braonain
    3.
    August 24, 2007
    11:00 am

    daniel - correct, prices certainly wont come down. And MCD setting up a quasi-Ticketmaster operation for their ticket sales would be a nice little bonus earner for them (10,000 arcade fire tickets by 4-5 euro convenience charge equals a nice handy chunk of change). I assume the economies of scale of this in the Irish context make sense? Yes bean-counters, I need you and your spreadsheets to give me a dig out here.

    Sean - Live Nation looks after all Clear Channel’s live entertainment interests. It was spun-off from CC in late 2005 - http://www.boston.com/news/globe/living/articles/2006/01/25/live_nation_takes_over_clear_channels_concerts/

    And yes, that user info is the real value in all of this (though those convenience charges do add up)

    Comment by Jim Carroll

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