Metro Pulse- Entertainment
 
  Ides of March 2011  (March 6-13)
 
Spring is in the air as the entertainment engine here in the Midwest revs up for the upcoming season and the inevitable ticket onsales that herald the events that will be here this summer and early fall. The Midwest winter has been harsh and anticipation is high for this year. Current shows already on sale have featured healthy advance ticket sales for Usher and Glee, among others.
 
There has been much speculation on how the prices will be scaled for this summer's events seeing as dominant promoter Live Nation is coming off of it's worst year ever, reporting losses in the multi millions of dollars for fiscal 2010, and announcing that ticket prices will fall because of the reduced guarantees they reportedly are offering touring acts this summer in deference to the economy, as well as a mysterious dynamic pricing system (described as multi tiered pricing) that will be implemented for certain shows .
 
This is based on the fact that the company has taken the majority owned division, Front Line Management, COMPLETELY private by cashing out founder Irving Azoff recently for a reported 116 million dollars for his remaining stake. 
 
Azoff is now CEO of the LIVENATION/TICKETMASTER merged company with the resignation of interim CEO and board member John Malone of Liberty Media, a major stockholder, who took the reins after Barry Diller of IAC left the company last year after repeated squabbles with Malone.
 
Front Line has an enviable roster of touring talent that includes the majority of the major touring acts, but it is befuddling to this reporter how a company which possesses such a potent  horizontal and vertical integration, described as managing the act, setting the price of AND selling the tickets for that act, and in a majority of the cases, owning or exclusively leasing the amphitheatre or arena the act is playing in, can be fair in it's execution of it's fiduciary responsibilities to the act, and, by extension, the public.
 
This reporter has decades of experience in this industry and vividly remembers the Reagan Justice Dept of 1982 slapping the wrist of titan Lew Wasserman's MCA Inc and breaking it up for essentially doing the same thing in regards to horizontal and vertical integration in this industry, so much for 20th century precedent in a 21st century world.
 
It is a fact that the Obama Justice Dept reviewed the LIVE ATION/TICKETMASTER merger extensively for monopolistic concerns and imposed certain restrictions and checks and balances when it was approved, including selling the recently purchased Paciolan ticketing division to Comcast and insisting that AEG (Anschultz Entertainment Group), their primary competitor, be allowed to license ticketing software from them, as well as a review system to monitor complaints about procedures from competitors (local promoters) forced to reveal proprietary information to them when hiring Ticketmaster to sell their tickets to local events not promoted by Live Nation.
 
In an ironic twist to this mandate, instead of utilizing the software from Ticketmaster to sell it's shows,  AEG has recently partnered with Outbox, a Montreal ticketing company that recently brought on former Ticketmaster CEO Fred Rosen out of retirement to directly compete with Ticketmaster in their core business of ticketing, an ominous sign that industry veterans see blood in the water in this industry, and this development may be signaling a sea change on how tickets are bought AND sold both in the US and globally.
 
The advent of mobile technologies and smart phone capabilities will be the vanguard of how Outbox can threaten the Live Nation/Ticketmaster franchise and dominance, only time will tell how successful they will be and Metro Pulse hopes that the public is the winner in this battle as it is obvious that the current system isn't working as well as it could for local promoters, venues AND the public, and competition is always a good thing in the darwinian business climate we now live in to motivate change and innovation.
 
Chicago is the home of the summer festivals and rumor has it a new one is scheduled to debut on July 8, 9. and 10 at a lakefront site on the south side of town. The Dave Mathews Band "Caravan" mini festival, which features Dave Mathews for 1 of the nights, and a variety of another acts in a "festival" atmosphere for the other 2 nights as arranged by the band, is slated for this date. It is to be one of only 3 shows the band will headline this summer, no advance ticket information at press time.

Pearl Jam also plans to headline several self promoted summer festivals in the EAST, MIDWEST and WEST COAST to celebrate the 20 year anniversary of the band, no info at press time where and when these festivals will be held, these are also the only shows the band plans to play in the US this year.

‘til the next time
MD
metropulseinc@hotmail.com