Live Nation's Big Idea

Here are my notes from last week's Live Nation Credit Suisse presentation.

What They Said:

• The goal this year was to narrow down and focus on music and trim away the fat. To that end they've developed a vertical integration strategy.
• Though this industry has existed for a long time it was the last to get professionalized (and is still dragging behind if you ask me). Live Nation is working to develop a "clarity of mission."
• Part of this strategy included seeling off non-strategic assets like the sports division and acquiring Trunk Ltd. and House of Blues
• Artists are now (and for the last few years) making more money on the road than selling records.
• Live Nation spends over a billion dollars a year in talent costs and don't expect that to change.
• They would however like to stretch that dollar to includes such things are more performance s and more rights to broadcast said performances since they are "providing the strategic capital" (read: yo dude! we have speakers installed!)
• Next year there will also be an increased focus on getting out of non-optimum venus in wrong markets.
• They have too many ampitheatres that they can't sell out. One thousand to five thousand seaters
• The number of European properties surpassed United States this year.
• They have developed a new top market strategy in N. America as they currently do in Europe whereby they will have the best venues (at the large and mid-sized level) in the first tier markets (major cities) and pull out of less profitable second tier markets.
• Internation expansion is a high priority. They have their lasers set on Spain, Germany, Australia, and Japan among others.
• House of Blues has immeasurable brand value and name recognition for Live Nation, however I didn't get a sense that they were particularly clear on how the rest of their properties could capitalise from it.
• This year was about investing in the company more than anything else.
• They will be rolling out an online store powered by MusicToday very soon.
• They are aggressively looking to expand in the music festival market, as they already have the rights to the largest festivals in Europe and have found them to be immensely profitable (Boonnarroo, Coachella this means you. Name your price).
• They need to sort out a better food and beverage deal.
• They may sort a deal out with Ticketmaster to work together on a Live Nation ticketing system but they will no longer farm their ticketing out to Ticketmaster.

What They Didn't Say/ What sounded fishy:

• They didn't say anything about artist development. They seem to be content with the idea that the artists that fill the arenas and clubs might not be the same from year to year, rather than trying to work on developing staying power and using that to form the basis of their (sorely needed) customer relationship/ audience development strategy.
• They want to figure out how to sell fans more "artist stuff". But there was not much talk about the quality of said "stuff".
• They talked about having an email list of 25 million "avid concertgoers", but didn't explain what that meant. We all know most people rarely/never go to concerts, so what does it mean to have an email list of which a sizable chunk are people who just want to see Barbara Streisand?