LIVE NATION

(Redirected from Clear Channel Entertainment)

'Live Nation' is a live events company based in Beverly Hills, California, United States. Live Nation formed in 2005 by a spin-off from Clear Channel Communications. The present CEO of the company is Michael Rapino.
In 2005, Live Nation promoted or produced over 28,500 events, including music concerts, theatrical shows, specialized motor sports and other events, with total attendance exceeding 61 million. As of September 30, 2005, Live Nation owned or operated 117 venues, consisting of 75 US and 42 international venues. These venues include 39 amphitheaters, 58 theaters, 14 clubs, four arenas and two festival sites. In addition, through equity, booking or similar arrangements Live Nation has the right to book events at 33 additional venues.

Contents

History

Business

United States

Worldwide

Controversy

Live music recordings

Corporate governance

Top executives

See also

Sources

External links

History

Business

United States

★ Live Nation owns SFX Entertainment, providing venue and artist management. It owns, operates and/or exclusively books 135 live entertainment venues, including 29 in Europe, along with producing high profile events such as Super Bowl halftime shows. It also represents major music artists.

★ US Touring Productions of Broadway Shows ''The Lion King'' and ''Mamma Mia!''

★ Owns Monster Jam, a promoter of monster truck races and other indoor motorsports. Live Nation also owns several trucks and the rights to several trucks running at these events, including Grave Digger, Superman and Maximum Destruction.

★ Produces sporting events: 84 Lumber Classic of Pennsylvania; Legg Mason Tennis Classic; ADT Skills Challenge; American Century Golf Championship; THQ World Supercross GP; National Arenacross Series; IFMA Freestyle Motocross; and IHRA Drag Racing

★ Produces concerts and festivals: Ozzfest, Jägermeister Music Tour, and Music Midtown (Atlanta)

★ In July 2006 Live Nation announced it has entered into a definitive merger agreement to acquire HOB Entertainment, Inc., the operator of the House of Blues chain of music halls and restaurants.

Worldwide

★ Acquired Italian music promoters Milano Concerti and Trident Agency.

★ Worldwide subsidiaries include Welldone Agency & Promotion (Finland), dkbMotor (Denmark), EMA Telstar (Sweden) and Gunnar Eide Concerts (Norway).

★ Live Nation's subsidiary Mojo Concerts is the biggest organiser of concerts in The Netherlands with over 200 concerts and a total of a million visitors a year. Well known festivals include Pinkpop, Lowlands, Arrow Rock Festival and North Sea Jazz.

★ Owns Clear Channel Entertainment do Brasil Ltda, a Brazilian music promotion and production company

★ In the United Kingdom, as Live Nation UK, owns:

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★ A stake in Mean Fiddler Music Group, and thus interests in:

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★ Several music festivals, including Glastonbury Festival (although this is up for negotiation in 2007), Reading and Leeds Festivals, Homelands Festival and Download Festival

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★ Some medium-sized London music venues, including the London Astoria and the Mean Fiddler.

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★ Management and operations at the London's Wembley Arena, The National Bowl in Milton Keynes and the Hallam FM Arena in Sheffield.

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★ A large majority of the UK's biggest regional theatre houses including the Sunderland Empire Theatre, Palace Theatre, Manchester, Alexandra Theatre in Birmingham, Edinburgh Playhouse, Liverpool Empire, New Theatre Oxford and Bristol Hippodrome.

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★ A concert promotion business which promotes large outdoor concerts in Hyde Park, London, as well as numerous small and medium concert venues across the country.

★ In Belgium, Live nation organises big festivals, like Rock Werchter and Graspop Metal Meeting.

Controversy

As a previous subsidiary of Clear Channel Communications under the Clear Channel Entertainment name, Live Nation was party to some highly visible controversies. The 2005 SEC filing for the creation of Live Nation listed several reasons for pursuing the split, including avoiding regulatory and legal pitfalls faced by Clear Channel.

Live music recordings

In 2004, Clear Channel acquired a key patent in the process of producing Instant Live recordings, in which a live performance is recorded directly from the sound engineer's console during the show, and then rapidly burned on CD so that audience members can buy copies of the show as they are leaving the venue. This had been intended to provide additional revenue to the artist, venue, and promoter, as well as stifle the demand for unauthorized bootleg concert recordings made by audience members for profit. However, some media critics, as well as smaller business rivals, believed that Clear Channel was using the patent (on the process of adding cues to the beginning and ending of tracks ''during recording'', so that the concert is not burned as a single enormous track) to drive competitors out of business or force them to pay licensing fees, even if they do not use precisely the same process. The patent was transferred to Live Nation when Clear Channel Entertainment was spun off [1], but the claims of the patent were cancelled on March 13, 2007[2], after the patent owner failed to respond to a final office action in an inter-partes reexamination proceeding. All originally issued claims were rejected as being anticipated or rendered obvious by earlier publications for products developed by Telex.[3]
Recently Live Nation demanded that video sharing network YouTube pull all of its videos of live concerts managed by them from its server (i.e. live performances of the 2007 Download Festival and several others). The removal of these videos was an unpopular move and sparked protest and outrage from users.

Corporate governance

Current members of the board of directors of Live Nation are: Henry Cisneros, Jeffrey T. Hinson, L. Lowry Mays, Mark P. Mays, Randall T. Mays, Connie McCombs McNab, John N. Simons, Jr., Timothy P. Sullivan, Harvey Weinstein, Michael Cohl, and Michael Rapino

Top executives

★ Michael Rapino - chief executive officer; named CEO after serving as president of Clear Channel Entertainment; married to Jolene Blalock

★ Alan Ridgeway - Chief Financial Officer

★ Bruce Eskowitz - CEO — North American Music

★ Russell Wallach - President - Live Nation Alliances

★ Michael Rowles - Executive Vice President and General Counsel

★ Faisel Durrani - President — Marketing

★ Arthur Fogel - Chairman — Global Music

★ Thomas O. Johansson - Chairman — International Music

★ David Ian - Chairman - Global Theatre

★ Bryan Perez - President - Digital Distribution

★ tbd - Senior Vice President of Interactive Technology

★ Steve K. Winton - Chief Executive Officer — North American Theater

★ Scott Fedewa - Executive Vice President & Executive Producer - Digital Distribution

See also

★ Live Nation UK

★ Instant Live

Sources

★ http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1335258/000095012905012209/h31387e8vk.htm

★ http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1335258/000095012905011741/h27202a4exv99w1.htm

External links

★ LiveNation.com

★ LiveNation.co.uk

★ Live Nation TV

★ Broadway Across America web site

★ Broadway Across Canada web site

★ Live Nation investor web site

★ Live Nation takes over Clear Channel's concerts -- ''The Boston Globe''