Jump to content

Live Nation (events promoter): Difference between revisions

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Browse history interactively
← Previous editNext edit →
Content deleted Content added
VisualWikitext
mNo edit summary
Line 102: Line 102:
* Produces concerts and [[music festival|festivals]]: [[Great New York State Fair]], [[Ozzfest]], [[Jägermeister Music Tour]], and [[Music Midtown]] ([[Atlanta, Georgia|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.
* Produces concerts and [[music festival|festivals]]: [[Great New York State Fair]], [[Ozzfest]], [[Jägermeister Music Tour]], and [[Music Midtown]] ([[Atlanta, Georgia|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 [[House of Blues|HOB Entertainment]], Inc., the operator of the [[House of Blues]] chain of music halls and restaurants.
* In July 2006 Live Nation announced it has entered into a definitive merger agreement to acquire [[House of Blues|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 (entertainer)|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.
* On [[October 16]], [[2007]], Live Nation announced it signed a $320 million, 10-year global partnership contract with pop artist [[Madonna (entertainer)|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.
* 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 [[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.

Revision as of 04:14, 5 August 2009

Live Nation, Inc.
Company typePublic (NYSE: LYV)
IndustryEntertainment
Founded2005
HeadquartersUnited States Beverly Hills, California
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
Michael Rapino
(President), (CEO) & (Director)
Arthur Fogel
(Chairman)
ProductsConcerts
RevenueIncrease US$ 4.184 billion (2007)
Increase US$ 82.14 million (2007)
Increase US$ -11.94 million (2007)
Total assetsIncrease US$ 2.752 billion (2007)
Total equityIncrease US$ 907 million (2007)
Number of employees
Full-time: 4,700
Part-time: 15,900
WebsiteLiveNation.com

Live Nation, Inc. NYSE: LYV is a live events company based in Beverly Hills, California. Live Nation formed in 2005 by a spin-off from Clear Channel Communications. The present CEO of the company is Michael Rapino.

Mainly a concert promoter, Live Nation "signs" artist as a "record label", but predominantly takes the role of a promoter, rather than "owner of music". The deal with U2 and Madonna for example does not include copyright of the artists' future recordings. The 2007 deal signed with Jay-Z does include the rapper's future recordings [1][2]. Recently, Live Nation has signed Colombian singer Shakira and Canadian band Nickelback.

Business

Annually Live Nation promotes or produces over 22,000 events, including music concerts, theatrical shows, and other events, with total attendance exceeding 50 million[3]. 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.

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. Shakira signed a contract with Live Nation in July 2008. The singer would have to fulfill two more albums and a greatest hits album under her old contract with Sony BMG, but all touring and other aspects of the singers musical career would be in effect with the Live Nation contract.[4]

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.[5]

In April 2008 a deal for $152 million between Jay-Z and Live Nation was confirmed. The deal covers financing of Jay-Z's own entertainment venture, live shows, tours and future recordings for the next 10 years.[1] his next album, Blueprint 3, will be distributed by Atlantic Records, while his upcoming label, Roc Nation, will be distributed by Sony Music Entertainment.[6][7]

House of Blues

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

Template:Multicol

| class="col-break " |

|}

Controversy

As a previous subsidiary of Clear Channel Communications under the Clear Channel Entertainment name, Live Nation was party to some highly visible controversies. The 2005 SEC filing for the creation of Live Nation listed several reasons for pursuing the split, including avoiding regulatory and legal pitfalls faced by Clear Channel.

Live music recordings

In 2004, Clear Channel acquired a key patent in the process of producing Instant Live recordings, in which a live performance is recorded directly from the sound engineer's console during the show, and then rapidly burned on CD so that audience members can buy copies of the show as they are leaving the venue. This had been intended to provide additional revenue to the artist, venue, and promoter, as well as stifle the demand for unauthorized bootleg concert recordings made by audience members for profit. However, some media critics, as well as smaller business rivals, believed that Clear Channel was using the patent (on the process of adding cues to the beginning and ending of tracks during recording, so that the concert is not burned as a single enormous track) to drive competitors out of business or force them to pay licensing fees, even if they do not use precisely the same process. The patent was transferred to Live Nation when Clear Channel Entertainment was spun off, [1] but the claims of the patent were cancelled on March 13, 2007,[2] after the patent owner failed to respond to a final office action in an inter partes reexamination proceeding. All originally issued claims were rejected as being anticipated or rendered obvious by earlier publications for products developed by Telex.[3]

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[8]

Live Nation International Music and Live Nation Artists

Live Nation is currently constructing a physical recording label[citation needed], Live Nation Artists, which will be a division of Live Nation International Music. The company is expected to become a major rival against EMI, Sony Music, Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group with artists such as U2, Madonna, Jay-Z, Shakira 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. [9]

Live Nation's talks, which sources say are still in their early stages, represent 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 follows last week's 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. Sources cautioned, however, that without a new album due to Live Nation for at least 18 months, the company is in no rush to make a decision. [9]

On 31 March 2008, it was confirmed that Live Nation signed a 12 year deal with U2 worth an estimated $100 million (£70 million).[10] 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 only worth 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.[11] The company hopes to recoup their losses with the release of and tour for U2's next album, "No Line on the Horizon".

Top executives[12][13]

Template:Multicol

  • Michael Rapino – chief executive officer; married to Jolene Blalock
  • Arthur Fogel – Chairman of Global Music, Chief Executive Officer — Global Touring
  • Jason Garner – CEO, Global Music
  • John Hopmans - Executive Vice President, Mergers and Acquisitions and Strategic Finance
  • Nathan Hubbard – CEO, Ticketing
  • Thomas O. Johansson – Chairman, International Music
  • Alan Ridgeway – CEO, International Music

| class="col-break " |

  • Michael Rowles – Executive Vice President and General Counsel
  • Ben Weeden - Chief Operating Officer, North American Music
  • Kathy Willard – Chief Financial Officer and Executive Vice President
  • Shane Bourbonnais - President of Talent, Live Nation International Music
  • Phil Bowdery - President of Touring, Live Nation International Music
  • Paul Latham - Chief Operating Officer, Live Nation International Music
  • John Probyn - Chief Operating Officer, Live Nation UK Music
  • Riley O'Connor - Chairman, Live Nation Canada

|}

Companies

United States

Worldwide

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

See also

Sources

  1. ^ a b Jay-Z to sign deal with Live Nation Rosie Swash, The Guardian, April 3, 2008. Accessed July 2008
  2. ^ Record labels need 'reinventing'
  3. ^ Corporate Overview - Investor Site
  4. ^ PR Newswire
  5. ^ Jones, Kenneth (January 24, 2008). "Key Brand Entertainment Acquires Live Nation Tour Markets". Playbill. Retrieved 2008-07-21. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  6. ^ http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/news/jay-z-confirms-roc-nation-deals-with-sony-1003989086.story
  7. ^ http://www.rollingstone.com/rockdaily/index.php/2009/07/01/jay-z-talks-ditching-def-jam-new-deals-im-an-entrepreneur/
  8. ^ Live Nation Investor Site - Corporate Governance - Board of Directors
  9. ^ a b http://www.nypost.com/seven/07302008/business/a_different_tune_122233.htm
  10. ^ U2 ties knot with Live Nation deal
  11. ^ ""UPDATE 1-Live Nation takes $19 mln hit on U2 buyback deal"".
  12. ^ Corporate Governance - Management
  13. ^ Live Nation Announces New Key Positions in International Music Head Office


Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Live_Nation_(events_promoter)&oldid=306146026"