Businessmodel of Live Nation Entertainment

Customer Segments

Live Nation serves a range of customers, principally individuals and businesses associated with the events business. The Company’s four operating segments target different markets, with customers including:

• Event promoters, sports teams, talent agents, venues – including stadiums, arena, clubs, theatres, museums and festival sites, to which it provides event ticketing, promotion and venue operation services;
• Consumers, to whom it sells tickets for events and festivals, concessions, and merchandise – which is also sold to retailers;
• Artists, to whom it provides management and promotion services; and
• Advertising agencies, brand marketers, and commercial businesses, to which it offers a range of sponsorship opportunities and advertising solutions. Live Nation is currently promoting artists such as Coldplay, Beyonce, Black Sabbath, Guns n’ Roses, and Drake, and operates the Palavela, Bassrush, and Loud Park festivals, among many others.

Live Nation operates in more than 40 countries worldwide, with activities principally across the Americas, Europe, Asia Pacific. The US, Europe and Australia appear to be the Company’s most significant markets.

Value Propositions

Live Nation provides value to its customers in the following ways:

• Its broad range of events, with the Company promoting and operating a varied spectrum of events across all musical genres – including festivals and concerts, as well as promoting and selling tickets to sporting and other events;
• Its ticketing software and services, with the Company operating an efficient and reliable online ticketing service, making its events easily accessible, making Live Nation one of the world’s largest e-commerce businesses;
• The scope of its advertising and sponsorship programs, with the Company providing a range of effective advertising and brand marketing opportunities to companies and agencies; and
• Its global footprint, with the Company providing ticketing and event operations services on a global scale, with operations across the Americas, Europe, Asia Pacific. ### Channels

Live Nation operates a website at www.livenationentertainmnet.com, through which it provides information on its various services and activities. The Company sells tickets, provides resale ticket services, and marketing services through its flagship ticketing portals at www.livenation.com and www.ticketmaster.com, as well as through a network of associated ticketing websites. The Company also utilises mobile channels to sell tickets, through its Live Nation and Ticketmaster apps, and sells tickets through retail outlets and call centres.

Live Nation provides its artist services, advertising and sponsorship, and event operation services through direct interaction with members of the relevant sales or management teams. The Company operates a network of offices across 32 countries, through which it is able to serve clients locally.

Customer Relationships

Live Nation serves consumers wishing to purchase tickets on a largely self-service basis, operating online and mobile sales channels through which customers can access ticketing services for all of Live Nation’s upcoming events, which are searchable by

Live Nation cultivates closer relationships with its non-consumer clients, consulting directly with them so as to more completely fulfil their needs. This includes ongoing relationships with artists, and multi-year relationships with venues, event promoters, with the Company typically entering into written agreements with individual clients to provide primary ticketing services for specified periods, ranging from three to five years.

Customers are able to contact Live Nation with queries and enquiries both directly over the phone or via an online contact form. The Company also operates an online help centre, where it provides customers with a range of resources, including FAQs, tips and guides. Live Nation and Ticketmaster both have accurate social media presences, with customers able to interact with the Company through Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Pinterest

Key Activities

Live Nation provides live entertainment services. The Company operates through four business segments: Concerts, concerning the promotion and operation of live music events across its own and third-party venues; Ticketing, comprising ticketing agency services for its clients, with sales being routed through its own online sales channels and third-party outlets; Artist Nation, which provides management services to music artists in exchange for a commission on the earnings of the artists; and Sponsorship and Advertising, which sells a range of sponsorships and advertising solutions to businesses, enabling them to reach customers through the Company’s concert, venue, artist relationship and ticketing assets. The Company’s other activities are organised under the Other and Corporate segment.

Key Partners

Live Nation collaborates with a number of partners throughout the course of its business.

• Sponsorship and Advertising Partners, comprising companies with which the Company collaborates on event and concert sponsorship programs;
• Technology Partners, comprising technology companies that help to enhance the live event experience and provide innovations for the Company’s online services; and
• Alliance and Strategic Partners, comprising a range of companies and organisation with which the Company collaborates on joint projects and shares tools and resources. Live Nation has had successful sponsorships partnerships with Absolut Vodka, Bud Light, FirstMerit Bank, HTC, Yahoo, and O2. The Company has also launched a recent partnership with Snapchat to cover music festivals around the UK and Europe with its ‘Live Stories’ feature; has collaborated with Hulu and NextVR to pursue opportunities in virtual reality concerts; and has partnered with Philips in promote its home lighting systems.

Key Resources

Live Nation’s key resources are its online ticketing system and software, its IT infrastructure, its network of venues, its portfolio of managed artists, its network of partners and sponsors, and its personnel.

Live Nation owns and distribute intellectual property worldwide, which is protected under trademarks, brands, copyrights, and patents. Its trademarks include, among others, the marks “Live Nation”, “Ticketmaster”, “House of Blues”, and “The Fillmore”, which the Company deems to be significant to its brand-building efforts and the marketing of its services.

Searches of records published by the US Patent and Trademark Office identified a number of patent application filed in Live Nation’s name, including applications entitled ‘Centralized and device-aware ticket-transfer system and methods’, Dynamic filtering and precision alteration of query responses responsive to request load’ and ‘Live concert/event video system and method’.

Cost Structure

Live Nation incurs costs in relation to its operation of events and concerts – including artist fees and production costs, the development and maintenance of its online ticketing system, the maintenance of its IT infrastructure, the implementation of advertising and marketing campaigns, the management of its venue and artists, the management of its partnerships, and the retention of its personnel.

As of 31st December 2015, Live Nation employed around 7,700 full-time employees, accruing costs in the form of salaries and benefits. It also accrues utility and rental costs in relation to its international network of offices.

Revenue Streams

Live Nation generates revenue through the provision of ticketing, event operation, and artist management services, as well as through its advertising and sponsorship solutions. The Company charges a fee on all tickets for events on behalf of clients, and retains a larger portion of ticket prices on its own events. As a venue operator, the Company also generates revenue from the sale of concessions, parking, premium seating, and rental income.

In 2015 Live Nation generated $7.25 billion in annual revenue, up on the $6.87 billion recorded in revenue for the previous year. The Company attributed this 6% increase to a general increase in business across all segments. Live Nation’s Concert segment is its largest revenue generator, recording approximately $5.0 billion in annual revenue, representing around 68.5% the Company’s total for the year.