It’s an e-commerce play.<\/p>\n
Concert promotion is a 4% business.\u00c2\u00a0 Do you really think a new competitor is gonna come out of nowhere to give an act all its money?\u00c2\u00a0 Hell, it’s 4% if you win, what if you lose?\u00c2\u00a0 Which is why we’ve got ticket fees and all sorts of ancillaries.\u00c2\u00a0 And Live Nation is a public company, striving to survive, so it had no choice but to build its own ticketing platform, that’s where all the profit is, in ticketing.<\/p>\n
When Live Nation broke away from Ticketmaster, when it started selling ducats on livenation.com, it lost 25% of its business.<\/p>\n
Slow down.\u00c2\u00a0 Let’s restate that.\u00c2\u00a0 All you Outbox lovers.\u00c2\u00a0 When the shows suddenly didn’t appear on ticketmaster.com, Live Nation lost 25% of its revenue.\u00c2\u00a0 If you think that a white label service is a solution to the industry’s problems you probably believe albums are gonna make a comeback.\u00c2\u00a0 You’re delusional.\u00c2\u00a0 Fred Rosen is all about the buildings, but now it’s all about the fans.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s kind of like the record labels believing that their customer was radio and retail.\u00c2\u00a0 How well did that work out for them?<\/p>\n
Live Nation is fan-centric.<\/p>\n
Laugh all you want.\u00c2\u00a0 Those Ticketmaster fees?\u00c2\u00a0 Live Nation HATES them.\u00c2\u00a0 Which is why it’s breaking them out when you initiate a search.\u00c2\u00a0 It wants to get rid of them completely.\u00c2\u00a0 Just have a final price.\u00c2\u00a0 You can break the fees down behind the scenes, unviewable by customers, so acts still won’t commission them, so why do you have to expose the customer to the industry’s dirty laundry?<\/p>\n
If you put the fees up front, conversion rate is higher.<\/p>\n
As it is with seat maps.<\/p>\n
Both of which are Ticketmaster innovations.<\/p>\n
It’s all about honesty and trust.\u00c2\u00a0 Which the touring industry NEVER believed in.<\/p>\n
But those days are changing.<\/p>\n
Come on.\u00c2\u00a0 You expect a revolution when the promoter gives the act ALL OF THE MONEY?\u00c2\u00a0 The only way to get out of this hole is if you find new money.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s Live Nation’s mission.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s going to get there via data.<\/p>\n
And it costs to get data.\u00c2\u00a0 A fortune.<\/p>\n
Live Nation is the number three e-commerce site already.\u00c2\u00a0 Behind Amazon and e-Bay.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s about the shopping cart.\u00c2\u00a0 Can Ticketmaster’s site be revolutionized so the buying experience is better and the customer can be sold everything from t-shirts to parking?\u00c2\u00a0 They’re selling some of that stuff already.\u00c2\u00a0 But it’s deep down in the chain, when you actually decide to buy tickets.\u00c2\u00a0 But it’s there.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s going to come up to the surface.<\/p>\n
I just spent the afternoon at the building.\u00c2\u00a0 With Rapino and Azoff and Nathan Hubbard.\u00c2\u00a0 My head is still spinning.\u00c2\u00a0 Boy can Michael talk.\u00c2\u00a0 Classic Canadian.<\/p>\n
But I learned plenty.<\/p>\n
Michael wants to show acts how they can make more money with Live Nation.\u00c2\u00a0 Live Nation has gone into partnership with a data company, which reports just how much demand there is.\u00c2\u00a0 The company monitors multiple data streams, from tweets to Google searches, and evaluates these to conclude exactly what the demand is.\u00c2\u00a0 How many tickets at what price.<\/p>\n
Bottom line?<\/p>\n
There are going to be twelve price points.\u00c2\u00a0 Based on data.<\/p>\n
No more Mafioso-style give me five hundred thousand bucks because I’m a star and I deserve it.\u00c2\u00a0 Now it’s about showing how much money is in the market.\u00c2\u00a0 That tickets need to be cheaper in Cleveland than NYC.<\/p>\n
And in the future, prices will move.<\/p>\n
But not this summer.<\/p>\n
Now it’s about multiple price points.<\/p>\n
If you want to sit up front, maybe it’s a thousand bucks.\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe only in every other row.<\/p>\n
But if you want to sit in the way back, it’s only $32.50.\u00c2\u00a0 Demand was through the roof for these cheap seats at the Eagles shows.<\/p>\n
The labels are toast.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s just a matter of when.<\/p>\n
Who’s going to build new acts?<\/p>\n
I didn’t get a ton of answers, just a belief that not only is distribution free, but so is recording.\u00c2\u00a0 That you can get your stuff out there.\u00c2\u00a0 And sponsorships and social networking can spread the word and if you break through, you can play ALL OVER THE WORLD!<\/p>\n
Kings Of Leon plays for seven figures in Brazil.\u00c2\u00a0 BRAZIL!<\/p>\n
Sometimes Vienna is a bigger market for an American act than a North American city.<\/p>\n
Once you’ve made it, there’s tons of revenue to book.\u00c2\u00a0 Sponsors are clamoring for partnerships with Live Nation acts.\u00c2\u00a0 They want to be in business with musicians.<\/p>\n
In other words, this is not your father’s music business.<\/p>\n
First and foremost you must be fan-centric.\u00c2\u00a0 All those companies screwing the customer, hiding behind the facade of intermediaries?\u00c2\u00a0 Those days are history.\u00c2\u00a0 Truth outs on the Web.\u00c2\u00a0 People can see your shenanigans.<\/p>\n
Live Nation is a service company.\u00c2\u00a0 You go to them and they maximize your revenue.\u00c2\u00a0 Based on their investment, they’ve got tools nobody else does.<\/p>\n
So where does this leave us?<\/p>\n
In an era where musical acts have five year careers.\u00c2\u00a0 That Live Nation sells the hell out of.<\/p>\n
Oh, we can focus on this year’s touring season.\u00c2\u00a0 Rapino is saying no to so many national tours.\u00c2\u00a0 They’ll buy some local dates, but not the whole shebang.<\/p>\n
There are 600 good shows at the shed.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s the extra 300 that killed them last year.\u00c2\u00a0 They’ve decentralized buying, it’s a local business.<\/p>\n
But the future of Live Nation is in the Ticketmaster website.\u00c2\u00a0 Concert promotion is a commodity.\u00c2\u00a0 How can Live Nation use the data acquired via the Ticketmaster site to get acts to tour smarter and make more money?<\/p>\n
That’s the question.<\/p>\n
Live Nation is trying to answer it.<\/p>\n
This is not the question JAM is asking.\u00c2\u00a0 Nor I.M.P.\u00c2\u00a0 Not that Rapino doesn’t think that local promoters are creating niches of profitability.<\/p>\n
But in an era of consolidation, you can’t win with the schmooze, you triumph with tech.<\/p>\n
Is Live Nation still overpaying?\u00c2\u00a0 Is AEG overpaying?<\/p>\n
Are acts finally getting smarter?\u00c2\u00a0 Are promoters and talent working together as opposed to being adversaries?<\/p>\n
We’ll find out this summer.<\/p>\n
But that’s not the big story here.\u00c2\u00a0 No, we’re now learning the profit is not so much in the nuts and bolts, but the 0’s and 1’s. The data.\u00c2\u00a0 The programming.<\/p>\n
Is Ticketmaster’s code just too old, like Windows?\u00c2\u00a0 And do they need to start over?<\/p>\n
Is the interface vision correct?<\/p>\n
Can the Live Nation guys live in the real world as opposed to an insular environment that doesn’t let them see the complete landscape?<\/p>\n
The future is in the cart.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s about knowing from the credit card companies that process Ticketmaster transactions that concert attendees ate at Ruth Chris’s and stayed at the Hampton Inn the night of the show and targeting sales and promotions around these facts.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s all in the data.\u00c2\u00a0 Which Live Nation is mining.<\/p>\n
STOP bitching about the ticket fees.\u00c2\u00a0 Live Nation hates them too.<\/p>\n
STOP bitching that you can’t get a good seat.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s the act’s fault.<\/p>\n
DO get ready for ongoing deals and discounts, it’s the way of America, music is no longer different.<\/p>\n
The concert industry is moving into the twenty first century.\u00c2\u00a0 Finally.\u00c2\u00a0 And if you think Live Nation is the enemy, either you’re a direct competitor or an idiot.<\/p>\n
Live Nation is your last best hope to make money.<\/p>\n
Then again, there are sites coming from nowhere to make headway, like Songkick.<\/p>\n
Yes, Live Nation’s competitor is a new site built by young ‘uns, not the sixtysomething promoters who still believe it’s 1975 and it’s just about a good act in the right-sized building.<\/p>\n
The fundamentals still count.\u00c2\u00a0 But now it’s so much MORE!<\/p>\n
It’s still writing\u00c2\u00a0 whether you’re doing it on a typewriter or a computer.\u00c2\u00a0 But writing can be distributed instantly online, on multiple platforms, and you don’t need to be a brick and mortar publisher to get the message out.<\/p>\n
Get it?<\/p>\n
I wonder.<\/p>\n
I also wonder if Live Nation wins in the end.<\/p>\n
But believe me, they’re trying.<\/p>\n
They’re looking to Apple and Amazon and Facebook to find their way.<\/p>\n
Not Bill Graham.<\/p>\n
Pooh-pooh that.\u00c2\u00a0 Say what a great show Bill Graham put on.<\/p>\n
But he also took all the money.\u00c2\u00a0 He could afford to give back.\u00c2\u00a0 He ultimately lost out to Michael Cohl because acts are greedy.\u00c2\u00a0 Acts are still greedy.\u00c2\u00a0 Who can make them the most money?<\/p>\n
Let me reinforce, anybody can pay a guarantee and put up a show.\u00c2\u00a0 But how do you sell more tickets and merchandise? What are your answers there?<\/p>\n
It’s all on the Web baby.\u00c2\u00a0 The experience is local and live.\u00c2\u00a0 But it starts in the browser.\u00c2\u00a0 Get ready.<\/p>\n
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It’s an e-commerce play. Concert promotion is a 4% business.\u00c2\u00a0 Do you really think a new competitor is gonna come out of nowhere to give an act all its money?\u00c2\u00a0 Hell, it’s 4% if you win, what if you lose?\u00c2\u00a0 Which is why we’ve got ticket fees and all sorts of ancillaries.\u00c2\u00a0 And Live Nation […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3783","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music-business","category-online"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p96vPs-Z1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3783","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3783"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3783\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3784,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3783\/revisions\/3784"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3783"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3783"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3783"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}