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Live Nation Says Stage Is Set For Strong 2012 Despite New Competition

By DAVID LIEBERMAN, Executive Editor | Thursday September 15, 2011 @ 5:26pm PDTTags: AEG, American Idol, Glee, Irving Azoff, Live Nation, Live Nation Entertainment, Michael Rapino, The Voice, The X Factor, Ticketmaster

Don’t tell Live Nation executives that their concert acts are getting old. While one-time hitmaker Neil Diamond continues to hit the stage at age 70, Chairman Irving Azoff says that “every year there’s a Taylor Swift, or Justin Bieber or Lady Gaga.” He adds: “We’re managing all the winners of The X Factor. We predict the tour will be huge. It’s Idol plus The Voice plus Glee on steroids.” That kind of shameless self promotion was the order of the day this afternoon as Azoff and CEO Michael Rapino made the investment case for their concert venue, talent management, and ticketing colossus at the Bank of America Merrill Lynch Media Communications and Entertainment conference. Rapino says that “in an overall tough economic time, we’re thrilled that the industry came off a horrible year and stabilized…. We will finish the year flat to up as  an industry and the early pipeline for 2012 looks good.”

Azoff says that Live Nation plans to take advantage of the crowds that will flock to Europe next year around the Summer Olympics in London. “The biggest names in the business will be on the road,” he says. “We’ll get a non-economy blip.” One of his mainstays, The Eagles, continues to tour and plans a Broadway show called (what else?) Hotel California. “No one knows whether the Rolling Stones are touring or not,” Azoff says. The execs say that they’re also making deals that could pay off — including a soon-to-be-announced acquisition of a management team. They don’t all work: Azoff chastised “one of my prima donna managers” who fired Kid Rock for bad behavior. The company had fewer problems arranging for Jennifer Hudson to sell Weight Watchers diets, and Mariah Carey to hawk Jenny Craig. Meanwhile, the Live Nation chiefs say that they’re unfazed by the emergence of a ticketing operation from their top competitor, AEG, that might challenge Ticketmaster. The No. 2 concert company is poised to sell tickets at its own venues in a partnership with Outbox Technology. “We don’t believe they’ll have as good a ticketing solution,” Azoff says. “So far our renewal rates have been phenomenal.”

 

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Media Stocks -5.4% As Fresh Data Suggest The Economy Continues To Weaken

By DAVID LIEBERMAN, Executive Editor | Thursday August 18, 2011 @ 12:13pm PDTTags: Amazon, Cablevision, CBS, Cinedigm, Coinstar, Comcast, Discovery Communications, Disney, Entercom, Gannett, IMAX, LIN TV, Lionsgate, Live Nation Entertainment, McClatchy, McGraw-Hill, Netflix, News Corp, Pandora Media, Radio One, Scripps Networks Interactive, Sinclair Broadcasting, Sony, Stock Market, Time Warner, TiVo, Viacom, Washington Post

The bears are back. After a relatively calm week, stocks prices across the board — including in media — are tanking today following reports that point to rising unemployment and inflation, and weakness in manufacturing. An hour before … Read More »

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Live Nation Credits Growing Concert Ticket And Ad Sales For 2Q Results Above Expectations

By DAVID LIEBERMAN, Executive Editor | Monday August 8, 2011 @ 1:16pm PDTTags: Live Nation Earnings, Live Nation Entertainment, Michael Rapino, Ticketmaster

Live Nation’s increase in ticket prices didn’t deter many people from going to see concerts in 2Q. The company reported net earnings of $13.3M, up from a $32.8M loss in the same period last year, on revenues of … Read More »

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Live Nation’s Irving Azoff Will Manage ‘The X Factor’ Winner

By DAVID LIEBERMAN, Executive Editor | Thursday August 4, 2011 @ 12:53pm PDTTags: Irving Azoff, Live Nation, Live Nation Entertainment, Simon Cowell, Syco, The X Factor

Curious that the press release (below) doesn’t explicitly say that Azoff is chairman of Live Nation Entertainment — the parent of Ticketmaster and the No. 1 owner of concert venues.

LOS ANGELES, Aug. 4, 2011 — Front Line Management and Syco Entertainment today announced a partnership which will see the future winning artist or group of the U.S. version of The X Factor managed by Front Line Management, the world’s leading artist management group.

Front Line, a division of Live Nation Entertainment, manages the careers of some of the world’s biggest-selling artists, including The Eagles, Miley Cyrus, Journey, New Kids on The Block, Christina Aguilera and Fleetwood Mac.

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Jim Dolan Joins Live Nation Board After Company Says He Can Still Be A Competitor

By DAVID LIEBERMAN, Executive Editor | Thursday June 30, 2011 @ 2:19pm PDTTags: AMC Networks, Cablevision, Cablevison James L. Dolan, Live Nation Entertainment, Madison Square Garden, Ticketmaster

The mind-numbing network of interlocking corporate relationships at Live Nation — the No. 1 concert promoter and owner of Ticketmaster — just became much more complicated with the announcement that Jim Dolan is joining its board of directors. He’s a power in live entertainment in his role as executive chairman of Madison Square Garden — a major owner of concert venues (Radio City Music Hall, The Beacon Theater, The Chicago Theater), sports teams (New York’s Knicks and Rangers) and media outlets (MSG network and music channel Fuse). Dolan’s also CEO of Cablevision Systems, a director of AMC Networks, and a Live Nation client in his role as lead singer and guitarist for blues band Read More »

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Does Liberty Media’s Malone Have A Vision?

By DAVID LIEBERMAN, Executive Editor | Tuesday May 24, 2011 @ 3:53pm PDTTags: Barnes & Noble, John Malone, John Malone Liberty Media, Liberty Media, Live Nation Entertainment, Starz

Those who remember Liberty Media Chairman John Malone from the days when he was the swashbuckling King of Cable like to think of him as a strategic mastermind who still wants to shape the future of media. But lately he’s looked like a guy … Read More »

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Concert Ticket Sales Down? No Matter, Biz Deals Lead To Rocking Pay At Live Nation

By DAVID LIEBERMAN, Executive Editor | Friday April 15, 2011 @ 5:00pm PDTTags: Irving Azoff, Live Nation Entertainment, Michael Rapino

It’s fascinating to watch companies in decaying industries resort to financial sleight of hand to try and survive — which is why we’re going to start paying attention to the music business. But you’d never know that music, including the concert business, is in trouble from the huge compensation packages that Live Nation just revealed it paid last year to its two top executives: chairman Irving Azoff and CEO Michael Rapino. They collectively made $38.7 million, mostly because they engineered several business deals including a merger with Ticketmaster — a combination that tightened Live Nation’s grip over the concert business but provided no discernible benefits for consumers. The financial gamesmanship certainly worked well for Azoff. He picked up a lot of Ticketmaster stock back when Barry Diller controlled the company and wanted to merge it with Azoff’s Front Line, a management firm that handles performers raging from The Eagles to a blues band that Cablevision CEO Jim Dolan fronts in his spare time, JD and the Straight Shot. Diller left Live Nation last year after losing a boardroom battle. Still, Azoff made $22.8 million in 2010, which included $13.8 million for his Ticketmaster and Front Line holdings. Live Nation also paid $731,130 to a private airplane company that Azoff owns — as well as salaries to his son, daughter and son-in-law, who hold non-executive jobs at Live Nation. Rapino ended up with nearly $15.9 million, a 138% raise over his compensation in 2009. Read More »

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Let’s All Be Done With Barry Diller, Please?

By NIKKI FINKE, Editor in Chief | Wednesday September 29, 2010 @ 10:07am PDTTags: Barry Diller, Live Nation Entertainment

I don’t do music. (I have my hands full with the scoundrels in Hollywood that I can’t possibly take on the crooks in the music biz as well.) And I stopped caring about anything despotic and obnoxious Barry … Read More »

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