Gawker: valleywag, live nation

Jay-Z follows U2 and Madonna, signs with Live Nation — yeah, the music industry is in tatters

Jordan Golson — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 12:30:00 EDT

HP endorser turned Mac user Jay-Z is dumping his current label, Def Jam, where he held the title of president, for a $150 million deal with concert promoter Live Nation. The deal includes increased financing for non-music ventures, touring, and new albums. The massive falloff in record sales means the industry's top moneymakers, whose profits subsidize the discovery and marketing of new artists, are deserting the labels. And who can blame them? (Photo by ashbyyokosuka)

Live Nation won't leave me alone

Paul Boutin — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 13:41:50 EST

Two weeks ago I ran a gantlet of pushy ads to buy local nightclub tix from Live Nation, the Beverly Hills-based event promoter for whom Madonna dumped her record label. Now, Live Nation is spamming my private inbox with a fat HTML brochure. The baloney line: "You have received this email because you are a member of the Live Nation mailing list, which you joined free of charge and without any obligation when you previously provided your email address to us in connection with the purchase of tickets." Yes, of course I checked every opt-out button. Yes, I knew they'd add me to their list anyway. But I really wanted to see Debbie Harry and I'm too busy to futz with multiple email addresses. Coming up on Boing Boing: How this new business model for musicians is so much better for me than shopping at Tower Records.

Live Nation brings Hollywood hard-sell to your desktop

Paul Boutin — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 07:45:06 EDT

Dear label-hating pundits who gush about Madonna's oh-so-innovative deal with Live Nation: Have you tried to buy anything from Live Nation's site? All I wanted was tix to a local show at a midsize club. Live Nation splatted my screen with so many upsells, signups and talking audio popups that I felt like I'd walked into the old Tower store on Newbury Street. Live Nation surcharged me nine bucks a pop for general admission seats. My print-at-home passes (left) were lost amid pages of tree-killing, color-ink-squandering ads. I Photoshopped the tickets onto one clean page for printing, solely for my own peace of mind.

Madonna dumps record companies, signs with concert promoter

Jordan Golson — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 13:32:54 EDT

More and more artists are striking innovative deals to sell their music — and leaving the traditional record industry contract behind. The Wall Street Journal reports that once Madonna's contract with Warner Music is up, she will link up with concert-promoter Live Nation. While not as revolutionary as Radiohead's pay-what-you-want plan, or Prince's free-music-with-newspaper deal, Live Nation is a concert production company, not a record label. Madonna's deal will bring album production and distribution, concerts, merchandise and publicity under one company.

In an attempt to counter Live Nation's concert/album/merchandise bid, Warner got Barry Diller's IAC/InterActiveCorp involved. IAC owns Ticketmaster, whose ticketing deal with Live Nation expired in August. Even so, the money was too much for Madonna to refuse. Under the new deal, Madonna will collect $120 million over 10 years plus 90 percent of tour revenue.

Madonna's albums will still be distributed through normal retail channels. Live Nation doesn't have a distribution arm, so it will contract, instead, with another label. Also unusual for the industry is a term under which ownership of the three albums to be recorded will revert to Madonna after a certain period of time.

Other big groups will be watching Madonna, Nine Inch Nails and Radiohead to see how their ventures work out. The fact that players like Live Nation are getting in the business tells us that middlemen will continue to play a role in connecting musicians with listeners. It just won't be the same middlemen as before.

(AP Photo/Matt Dunham)