• Ticketmaster, owned by the IAC conglomerate, will be one of four IAC divisions spun off into a separate public companies. Said IAC chief executive Barry Diller, "Ticketmaster is entering the most dynamic era in its history and its ability to participate fully (with its own currency) in shaping the live entertainment industry is critical." My opinion? This comes at a good time for Ticketmaster. The company stands before a wealth of opportunity in a changing entertainment industry. Management will be in a better position to take steps. (Biz Journals)

• Radio revenues were down 7% in September. (Radio Ink)

• Economist Aaron Schiff sifted through Jamendo's data on album donations. "Over the 22 months there were 1,454 donations made, for a total value of US$21,150. So each artist is receiving very little money, if anything. ... Across all donations the average was $14.55." (26econ.com, via Digital Audio Insider)

• Songza is a new music search engine/social networking site. Like Seeqpod, Songza allows users to search for songs, add them to playlists and share with friends. (Mashable)

• Video of the new Nokia U.K. music store featuring the new Nokia N81. (Engadget)

• Musicians take issue with the National Association of Broadcasters' characterization of the radio performance royalty as a "tax." (Variety)

Posted by Glenn at 7:56 AM | Link
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• Britney Spear's new album, Blackout!, is likely to debut at #1 on the album chart with first-week sales of up to 350,000. (Billboard.biz)

• At the final public hearing on media ownership, FCC Chairman Kevin Martin said he supports the easing of low-power-FM rules, allowing AM stations to operate on FM translators, reinstating tax breaks to minority investors and requiring that a radio station have a physical staff at all hours of operation. (Radio Ink)

• The National Association of Ticket Brokers issued a statement about the Hannah Montana ticket controversy. and pointed the finger at Ticketmaster and its secondary market operation, TicketExchange. The company, insists the brokers group, "actively encourages" consumers to buy and sell tickets on its secondary market exchange. (Ticket News)

• The U.K. Nokia Music Store is set to launch today. Users can buy tracks for 80p each ($1.60), buy albums for £10 to £12 ($22 to $24) or stream an unlimited number of songs for £8 ($16) per month. The service downloads tracks to Nokia N81 and N95 8GB mobile phones as well as the user's home PC. (Webuser)

• As was previously rumored, the CD version of Radiohead's In Rainbows will be distributed by XL Recordings outside of North America. (Hollywood Reporter)

• If you noticed some fancy cars in the video for 50 Cent's "Amusement Park" video, they were part of the marketing deal the rapper inked with General Motors. The Pontiac G8 -- a one-of-a-kind custom -- and G6 GXP were placed in the video to help spotlight new Pontiac models. So add cars to the long list of projects for 50 Cent: Recorded music, concerts, a movie, two autobiographies, Vitamin Water advertisements... (SOHH)

• Guitar legend Robert Fripp lambastes EMI over sales of King Crimson downloads after the license period expired. (The Inquirer)

• A Q&A with imeem.com's chief executive and chief marketing officer. "We think our direct ad sales from brand sponsorships and our multiple ad network partnerships will be our primary sources of revenue. We’ll also have commerce-related offerings, like digital downloads and ringtones. Right now we are the #1 iTunes affiliate partner." (New York Times' Bits blog)

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• Snocap and CD Baby are ending their short-lived partnership. CD Baby artists will be able to work directly with Snocap outside of their normal relationship with CD Baby. Snocap will waive the initial $30 annual fee for those who make the switch. It appears there were too many cooks in this particular kitchen. Wrote Snocap CEO Rusty Rueff in an email that went out Friday, "These experiences have shown us that SNOCAP works best when used directly by artists without the extra support of CD Baby." (Digital Audio Insider)

• Two promotion bits of news at Billboard.biz: LiveNation has a deal with the Seneca Indians to book events at the Seneca Events Center and the Bear's Den Showroom at the Seneca Niagara Casino Hotel in Niagara Falls; and AEG has acquired an interest in Grit Rock Rodeo, operator of the Wrangler ProRodeo Tour and the World's Toughest Rodeo.

• The state of Connecticut began allowing ticket brokers and individuals to resell tickets for whatever amount they desire. The law places no limits on the amount of the resale but does require brokers to refund the price of the ticket, plus fees and delivery charges, when the event is canceled. (Ticket News)

• The Country Music Association has teamed up with the National Business Association and Vanderbilt Universal Medical Center in Nashville to offer comprehensive health care to CMA members. (Press release)

• Of all the commentary on the new Radiohead album, the best comes from Jupiter's David Card. On the "Most.Revolutionary.Concept.Ever" commentary compiled by the New York Times' The Lede blog, Card wrote, "Most of them are pretty naive." That goes for Pitchfork, The Guardian and Lefsetz, and I agree -- though short-sighted or overexcited may be better than naive. In the end, this Radiohead event is mostly symbolic. If 15 to 20 major artists follow Radiohead's lead in the next 18 months, I may change my mind. (Sorry, Charlatans, you don't count.) An additional note: Those people calling it revolutionary must forget, or did not know, that Magnatune has had a similar model for years. Its artists have cut out the middleman, let people pay according to how they value the music and have made a decent living a country mile or two from mainstream attention. (David Card)

• Getty Images, which acquired Pump Audio in June, has launched its Soundtrack online music licensing service. Soundtrack will make available over 20,000 tracks (from independent artists) for use in broadcast, film production and advertising. (Press release, via Hypebot)

• Somewhat related to the music business: A U.K. regulator has ruled that music service provider Music Choice is the legal owner of and has exclusive rights to the bullseye logo that is also associated with retail giant Target. The article points out the U.S.-based target has international branding problems beyond Europe. Coles, Australia's second-largest retailer, is also called target and has virtually the same logo. (Financial Times)

Posted by Glenn at 7:41 AM | Link
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The Wall Street Journal's Joseph de Avilla has an article today on fans who find ways to access fan club-only ticket presales. Fan clubs, which typically cost $30 per year, give their members pass codes to pre-sale ticket opportunities. Some fan club members are selling those pass codes to non-members through eBay, Craigslist and, in one instance, a website called UltimatePresales.com.

"This practice irks fan-club managers, who want to ensure that only fan-club members benefit from the codes. But there appears to be little they can do to stop the practice, short of expelling members they catch selling the passwords and revoking tickets bought using someone else's code.

A variety of individuals -- both novices and professionals -- are behind the sale of these codes online, says Larry Peryer, president of UltraStar Entertainment LLC in Brooklyn, N.Y., which manages presale ticketing for artists such as the Rolling Stones, the Police and Sting. It may be a fan-club member trying to make extra money on the side. Or it may be a team of professionals employing an army of collaborators to join multiple fan clubs to gain access to several codes. These professionals may use the codes to buy prime tickets to resell, or may put the codes up for sale on sites such as eBay, Mr. Peryer says."

There's nothing illegal about selling these codes, so bands and fan clubs are starting to come up with preventative measures. UltraStar, by the way, is owned by promotions (and soon to be ticketing) powerhouse LiveNation.

Posted by Glenn at 12:15 PM | Link
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TicketNews' article on LiveNation's future ticketing plans brings up some good questions. When the company handles its own ticketing, after its deal with Ticketmaster expires at the end of the year, will cost savings be passed on to consumers? How much money will hit LiveNation's bottom line?

Investment bank Morgan Joseph estimates LiveNation was worth $130 million to $150 million in annual revenue to Ticketmaster, and that LiveNation could increase its EBITDA by up to $30 million by selling its own tickets.

Will customers realize anything from the cost savings? I won't hold my breath. But LiveNation could drop ticket prices if it takes care of its own ticketing. From the report: "In addition, we believe the move could also allow Live Nation to lower the various miscellaneous fees that fans are charged, which could ultimately bring down ticket prices and thus drive additional attendance at Live Nation shows."

Posted by Glenn at 10:45 AM | Link
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• LiveNation and Ticketmaster will not renew their relationship when the current contract expires at the end of the year. That will open the door for LiveNation to beef up its own ticketing operation (which recent acquisitions should allow it to do). Sources say the 14-15 million LiveNation event tickets purchased annually give Ticketmaster around $100 million in service fee revenues. (Billboard.biz)

• SoundExchange is allowing small webcasters -- defined as those with annual revenues of $1.25 million or less -- to pay 10-12% of revenue instead of the per-performance royalties set earlier this year. The deal includes a usage cap to "ensure that this subsidy is used only by webcasters of a certain size who are forming or strengthening their businesses." (Radio Ink)

• It's goes without saying, but at least somebody included it in an article. From Bloomberg News on Wal-Mart MP3 downloads from WMG and UMG: "Kevin Swint, Wal-Mart's manager of digital media, said the company is in talks with Sony BMG Music Entertainment and Warner Music Group Corp. as well as other record companies to offer their products in the same unprotected format." (Bloomberg)

• The second annual, five-day Next Big Nashville music festival, a showcase of Nashville's rich music scene, will run September 5-9. Local bands The Pink Spiders, De Novo Dahl, Ghostfinger, Wax Fang, Jeremy Lister, The Features and Freedy Johnston (he recently moved to town) are among the 130-plus bands that will play at ten venues. A five-day wristband will cost only $30. (Next Big Nashville)

• Little Big Town will give away its new single, "I'm With The Band," as a free download tomorrow at the band's website. The freebie will start at midnight E.T. and last 24 hours. (Country Weekly)

• Can you tell something about an artist's longevity from last.fm plays per listener? I would think so, and after compiling a long list of numbers, David of Digital Audio Insider thinks plays/listener, though a crude metric, shows quite a bit about long-term potential. "The Last.fm numbers don't look good for the long-term prospects of the Bravery and the Walkmen. Of all the acts in this analysis with Last.fm audiences of more than 100,000 listeners, these were the only two with less than 20 plays per listener. My suspicion is that bands that receive a fair amount of mp3 blog attention might have their ratios pulled down because there are a large number of Last.fm listeners who have only heard a single track or two via a music blog." (Digital Audio Insider)

• BusinessWeek's Ronald Grover writes about Universal Music Group's International Music Feed, a reaction to MTV's lack of video play. The potential is there, he writes, but the viewers aren't. "According to IMF, it gets an anemic 47,474 unique visitors a month to its Web site. And while it has 17 music channels on the online TV site Joost, and two channels on British cell-phone company Vodafone (VOD), it has just about no U.S. TV presence. ... It ain't MTV, that's for sure. But give Universal credit for trying." (BusinessWeek.com, via paidContent)

• The Rhapsody America joint venture is a case of one company having the brains and one company have the brawn. Will it bring mobile music into the mainstream? (Big Red Horseshoe)

Posted by Glenn at 10:46 AM | Link
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The secondary ticket market is something that gets people riled up, but new companies are extracting a great deal of value. Yes, there's a lot of value in the secondary market. Call it an efficient market-clearing mechanism, or call it a fan-unfriendly prescription for higher prices, but it looks like it's here to stay.

Eric Baker, the founder of Stubhub! is bringing his other ticketing company, the UK-based Viagogo, to the U.S. through a deal with the Cleveland Browns. Viagogo will be the authorized secondary ticket seller for the team.

"(Baker) estimates the U.S. secondary ticketing market at about $12 billion annually, but he said his former company StubHub! controls less than 10 percent, even though it’s the dominate player in the market. With more than 90 percent of the market up for grabs, and with anti-scalping laws crumbling throughout the country, Baker believed it was high time Viagogo made its move."

Extra credit reading:

• "Can the Net Make Ticket Scalping Legit?" at News.com, June 5, 2006. "Analysts now say the Internet is helping to move the secondary market out of the back alleys and into the boardroom. Internet companies such as TicketsNow.com and StubHub are trying to clean up the industry's image by weeding out con artists, offering up no-nonsense pricing and guaranteeing on-time delivery."
• The English band Hard-Fi found out 200 or so tickets for an Edinburgh, Scotland concert were on eBay, so the band demanded each one back from the re-sellers.
• "Elusive, Expensive and Sold Out" at the Toronto Star, July 25, 2007. "The Internet Age may have dramatically altered the landscape for would-be concert-goers, but the simpler times of camping outside a concert venue or local ticket agent to be first in line when the box office opens have been replaced by cyberspace queues where victory goes to the quickest keystroke or fastest high-speed connection."

Posted by Glenn at 10:48 AM | Link
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