Domination of festival/live entertainment market

[thesecretingredientiscrime]

Reading the article about Live Nation taking over Creamfields, it now appears the same company is involved in running Glastonbury, Reading and Leeds, T In The Park, Download, Creamfields, Latitude, Wireless, Hard Rock Calling and London Live, as well as operating the biggest academy venues in the country, and Wembley Arena.

Obviously it's going to come down to your personal opinion on economics/business/the festival market, but do you think this is right and good for the market?

I guess it's a sign of the times that independent festivals and venues are on a downturn. I'd definitely say that ownership on a central level such as this isn't beneficial though.

[eFestivals]

Reading the article about Live Nation taking over Creamfields, it now appears the same company is involved in running Glastonbury, Reading and Leeds, T In The Park, Download, Creamfields, Latitude, Wireless, Hard Rock Calling and London Live, as well as operating the biggest academy venues in the country, and Wembley Arena.

Live Nation don't run Glastonbury. Festival Republic - or perhaps even just Melvin Benn personally (I'm unsure of the contractual details) - provide some services for the festival, in not much different a way to how Avon & Somerset Police provide policing services to Glastonbury.

The only thing which steps outside of that analogy is Melvin personally being the Glastonbury licence holder; that allows Glastonbury to function with Melvin's help, while Melvin could not make Glastonbury Festival function with the licence alone.

I'd say that you're being a bit narrow with your view-point in concentrating only on Live Nation too. In a variety of companies they also partner with MCD, SJM, and Metropolis, and in combination those four companies have just about everything at the top end of the UK music scene sown up.

And it looks as tho their ownership of the UK's music and festivals market is about to get even wider. MAMA Group is up for sale (Lovebox, Wilderness, Global Gathering, and more) and it's probably the case that Live Nation will be acquiring that too.

[benc]

And it looks as tho their ownership of the UK's music and festivals market is about to get even wider. MAMA Group is up for sale (Lovebox, Wilderness, Global Gathering, and more) and it's probably the case that Live Nation will be acquiring that too.

Edited May 11, 2012 by benc

[jump]

I dont understand why they're selling, it's the only profitable part of HMV! surely you ditch the part of the business which isn't making money!