Concert promotion giant and Ticketmaster parent Live Nation is teaming up with Groupon, the online coupon site, to sell concert tickets.

The venture is yet another acknowledgement by Live Nation of the challenges facing the concert industry. Ticket sales have been struggling, and by partnering with Groupon, Live Nation will have another outlet to reach consumers. People generally use Groupon to find deals on tickets and restaurants.

"GrouponLive represents a new channel to drive value for fans, while helping artists and others to reach ever larger audiences," said Live Nation Entertainment President and Chief Executive Michael Rapino. "By adding this channel to our ticketing platform, we will also provide our venue partners with another option for driving ticket sales across a wide range of events."

Now, let's see what deal they can offer me on that REO Speedwagon and Rick Springfield show at the Greek.

-- Joe Flint

The concert season is off to a good start, but don't set your cigarette lighter too high just yet.

That was the message from Live Nation Entertainment Inc., the country's largest concert promoter, which reported a 17.4% increase in its first quarter revenue and a narrower loss thanks to growth in its ticketing and festivals businesses.

The Beverly Hills live event conglomerate posted sales of $849.4 million in the quarter ended March 31, up from $723.4 million a year ago. The company lost $54.3 million, or 27 cents a share, down from a $123-million loss, or 83 cents a share, a year earlier. That loss included $77.5 million in write-offs related to Live Nation's 2010 merger with Ticketmaster and other factors.

The improvements were driven by Live Nation's concerts business, which accounted for more than half of the company's revenue. Thanks to strong ticket sales by Lady Gaga, U2, Prince and others, its concerts division saw a 10.1% uptick in revenue to $449.3 million, from $408.1 million a year ago. Its ticketing business, which includes Ticketmaster, TicketWeb and TicketsNow, grew 41.7% to $296.3 million, from $209.1 million last year.

But Live Nation Chief Executive Michael Rapino cautioned against projecting those gains into the rest of the concert season, which peaks during the second half of the summer.

"Even though the numbers look good for the first quarter, we think it will normalize ... and maybe even eat into our early leads," Rapino told analysts in a conference call. "This year, the good stuff went out early. Now, we're in the thick of the season, and we're starting to see some softness" among lesser-known second- and third-tier performers.

Part of the uncertainty stems from an economy that continues to stagnate. Irving Azoff, Live Nation's executive chairman, also pointed to soaring gas prices, which eats into the bottom line of tour acts as well as the discretionary income of potential concert goers.

"We can better predict what's going on if we knew what gas prices are going to be," Azoff told an analyst who asked about the company's projections for the next few quarters.

One factor that has contributed, albeit in a minuscule fashion, to Live Nation's profits is Charlie Sheen, whose personal drama temporarily fueled ticket sales for the actor's live stage show, "Violent Torpedo of Truth," which is produced by Live Nation.

Asked by an analyst whether Sheen's tour helped the company's bottom line, Rapino answered, "We absolutely did. It's rock 'n roll, and we're not the moral cops, but we did deliver to the bottom line for the company."

-- Alex Pham

Photo: Lady Gaga cuts loose. Credit: Rick Diamond/Getty Images

In the music business there is a old adage that says there is no such thing as a bad concert, just bad prices.

So it was with this in mind that Live Nation Entertainment Inc.'s Ticketmaster on Monday announced it would adjust ticket prices based on consumer demand. The world's largest purveyor of live event tickets said it has partnered with MarketShare to help price its shows.

Ticketmaster will begin rolling out the "dynamic pricing" sometime this year, initially for major sporting events and concerts, and for arts and theater at a later date.

That means a concert that's not selling well may get a price cut. If tickets start moving fast, the price could theoretically go back up. Scalpers often take advantage in situations when demand for tickets exceeds the supply, creating a surplus of buyers willing to pay more than face value. Discounters such as Goldstar work the opposite end, when there is a surplus of unsold tickets.

In many retail sectors, such flexible pricing techniques are common. Clothes, shoes, airline tickets and hotel rooms are among the many commodities that adjust prices according to market demand.

Concerts and many professional sports games, however, are rarely if ever discounted. That's because discounting can cast a pall over an event by creating the impression that the promoter is desperate.

Such concerns seem to be outweighed by the effect of last year's disastrous concert season, when promoters were left with too many unsold seats and faced large losses.

Live Nation Entertainment, the Beverly Hills parent of Ticketmaster, last year saw a 7.6% drop in the number of tickets it sold from the year before. Much of the decline came from theater and concert events. Ticket revenue fell 12.5% in 2010 to $1.04 billion, down from $1.19 billion in 2009.

"Efficient pricing is one of the most important and untapped opportunities," Ticketmaster Chief Executive Nathan Hubbard said in a statement. "By utilizing MarketShare and Ticketmaster’s technology, our clients will be able to retain economic value that is normally siphoned off by the secondary market, and to sell more of their tickets that go unsold today. Meanwhile, more fans will have more opportunities to enjoy live entertainment events because tickets will be more accessible and pricing options will broaden."

Ticketmaster is not the first company to explore dynamic ticket pricing. ScoreBig, a Hollywood startup founded by former sports and concert industry veterans, has been testing a proprietary ticketing system that automatically adjusts prices according to how fast they're selling or how well similar shows have fared, among a host of factors. The service, which has been available to a small, invite-only audience, is set to launch to the general public later this year.

"This year, you're going to see a lot more concerts priced correctly," said Jim Guerinot, manager of No Doubt, Nine Inch Nails and other major bands. Translation: expect lower prices this year.

-- Alex Pham

Photo Credit: Paul Sakuma / Associated Press.

Live Nation Entertainment Inc. has dived into the bidding for Warner Music Group, which now counts a dozen or more suitors.

The bid from Live Nation, first reported in the Wall Street Journal and the New York Post, is for the recorded music portion of Warner. Warner also operates a music publishing business called Warner/Chappell, whose catalog includes works by Cole Porter, Madonna, Led Zeppelin, Katy Perry and others.

The surprise offer from Live Nation puts the publicly traded Beverly Hills company in an awkward position. Its executive chairman, Irving Azoff, a veteran personal music manager, has publicly denied being interested in buying Warner. Azoff's talent management business represents a number of top recording artists, including Christina Aguilera, 30 Seconds to Mars, Van Halen and Josh Groban.

A spokeswoman for Live Nation declined to comment on the matter.

If accepted, Live Nation's proposal potentially faces serious regulatory challenges. The company went through extensive, yearlong government scrutiny when it merged with Ticketmaster. Regulators had questioned whether Live Nation, the nation's largest concert promoter, would have too much market power once it combined with Ticketmaster, the largest event ticketing service. The company ultimately prevailed, closing its merger in early 2010.

Aside from Live Nation, other bidders to buy all or parts of Warner include Sony Music Entertainment, oil baron Len Blavatnik, supermarket magnate Ron Burkle, buyout firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. and private equity investor Platinum Equity, according to an executive knowledgeable about the offers.

Warner engaged investment banking firm Goldman Sachs to wrangle the bids late last year when it received an unsolicited buyout offer from KKR, which created a joint venture with Bertelsmann called BMG Rights Management. KKR's initial bid was increased in recent weeks to compete with more generous offers from rival bidders, said a person familiar with the bid.

Warner's board of directors is expected to whittle down the number of bids within the next several weeks and could make a final decision by the end of April, according to a person familiar with the sale process. 

-- Alex Pham

Related

Warner Music entertains second round of bids, to decide by early April

Warner Music Group gets look-see from Russian-born oil baron Len Blavatnik

Warner Music's Edgar Bronfman: Spotify and streaming music revenue to grow in 2011

Citigroup says it will keep EMI 'business as usual' after surprise takeover

Warner Music Group mulls sale, even as it considers buying EMI

Photo: Irving Azoff. Credit: Jonathan Alcorn / Bloomberg.

Concert behemoth Live Nation Entertainment on Monday said it purchased the remaining 25% of Front Line Management Group that it didn't already own for $116.2 million from Irving Azoff and Madison Square Garden. Founded in 2004, Front Line represents Christina Aguilera, Aerosmith, Jimmy Buffett and numerous other musicians.

In addition, Azoff, chief executive of Front Line, becomes Live Nation's chairman, consolidating his power at the Beverly Hills entertainment giant, which last year merged with the country's largest ticket seller, Ticketmaster, in a deal worth $889 million.

With Front Line fully in the corporate fold, Live Nation is able to manage talent, book concerts, issue tickets and sell artist-related merchandise.

The announcement is the denouement of a corporate power struggle that played out last year between Azoff and Barry Diller, who stepped down as chairman of Live Nation on Jan. 28 after announcing his departure in September.

Diller's departure was largely seen as payback for having crossed John Malone, chairman of Liberty Media, which owns roughly 18% of Live Nation. The two, who were once close business partners, sued each other two years ago in a bitter dispute over control of IAC/InterActiveCorp., which once owned Ticketmaster, the Home Shopping Network and Match.com. Malone and Diller formally parted ways in December, with Diller resigning as CEO of IAC and Malone selling his remaining shares in the company for $360 million.

As part of Monday's announcement, Live Nation said Liberty Media CEO Greg Maffei has joined its board of directors, replacing Malone.

Azoff, 62, assumes control of Live Nation at a time of declining concert attendance as consumers dial down discretionary spending. It sold 10% fewer tickets during the first nine months of 2010 compared with a year earlier, according to the latest figures released by the company. The dip occurred even though Live Nation staged more concerts -- 15,049 events in the first nine months of 2010, compared with 14,933 a year earlier.

Live Nation shares rose 32 cents, or 3%, to $10.80 on Monday.

-- Alex Pham

Photo: Live Nation Chief Executive Michael Rapino, left, and Irving Azoff at a 2009 congressional hearing on the proposed merger between Live Nation and Ticketmaster. Credit: Kevin Wolf / Associated Press.

Live Nation Entertainment, the Beverly Hills events promoter, on Wednesday said it had settled a class-action lawsuit over fees charged by its subsidiary, Ticketmaster.

The lawsuit, originally filed by two individual plaintiffs in Los Angeles Superior Court in 2003 and granted class-action status in September, accused Ticketmaster of misleading customers when it tacked on $14.50 to $25 in delivery fees. The suit alleged that Ticketmaster suggested that the fees simply covered the cost of delivering the tickets, but were in fact designed to boost the company's profit.

Live Nation, which merged last year with Ticketmaster to create an entertainment powerhouse, agreed to settle the lawsuit in December, setting aside $22.3 million to pay for legal fees and issue refunds to affected customers. It reduced its expected fourth-quarter earnings by the same amount, plus $4.9 million to "restructure its North American concerts business," according to a report filed Wednesday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

As a result, Live Nation said it expects its fourth-quarter operating income to be $362 million, down from its previous estimate of $389 million. The company is expected to report its earnings Feb. 28.

The company, which is suing its insurance carrier for not covering more than $4 million in legal expenses incurred in the case, admitted no wrongdoing, but said Ticketmaster would "make certain changes to disclosures on its website."

-- Alex Pham

John Malone, the chairman of Liberty Media, apparently doesn't get mad. He gets even.

Two years after losing a bitterly fought courtroom battle with his onetime business partner Barry Diller, Malone has succeeded in replacing Diller as chairman of the board of Live Nation Entertainment -- at least for now.

Diller's exit from the post was widely expected after he announced his intent to step down last month. Leslie Cafferty, Diller's spokeswoman, said he would remain on the Live Nation board but would not issue a statement on the matter.

Live Nation, the Beverly Hills concert promoter that in January merged with Diller's Ticketmaster to create a live music conglomerate, on Friday made the announcement that Diller has officially stepped down. Malone, who snagged a spot on the board when he purchased 14% of Live Nation's stock, has been named "interim" chairman.

Sixteen days ago when news of his planned departure from the Live Nation board broke, Diller said there was "no rush" to name a new chairman since, as he added during a tech conference that day in San Francisco, he planned to step down by the end of the year.

Malone is chairman of Liberty Media Corp., which owns or has investments in technology and entertainment companies including QVC, Starz Entertainment and Diller's IAC/InteractiveCorp.

Bad blood simmering between Malone and Diller stems from Diller's plan several years ago to spin off IAC/Interactive's businesses, including Ticketmaster. Malone objected to the breakup plan, arguing that it would dilute his controlling shares in the new companies. Each sued the other, and a judge in 2008 decided in Diller's favor.

An e-mail to Malone's spokeswoman was not immediately returned. 

-- Alex Pham

Top photo: John Malone, chairman of Liberty Media. Credit: Andrew Gombert / EPA. Bottom photo: Barry Diller, CEO of IAC/InterActiveCorp. Credit: Gregory Bull / Associated Press.

Mogul Barry Diller wasn't pushed from the board of Live Nation; he jumped.

That's the word from Liberty Media Chairman John Malone, a onetime Diller adversary and fellow board member of Live Nation Entertainment Inc., the $4-billion music powerhouse formed in January with the merger of Ticketmaster and Live Nation.

Diller, who is also chairman of IAC/InterActiveCorp, earlier this week confirmed leaks to the media that he would be stepping down as Live Nation's chairman by the end of the year. A number of people familiar with the executives said Diller left after losing a power struggle against Live Nation's executive chairman and talent super-agent, Irving Azoff.

Diller and Azoff both issued statements Wednesday downplaying any boardroom strife and saying Diller had planned all along to exit the board by year's end.

Malone seemed to paint a different picture in comments he made during a Liberty Media shareholder meeting Friday.

"Barry got fed up dealing with the three sides," said Malone, according to Reuters, referring to board members with former allegiances to Ticketmaster, Live Nation and Front Line, Azoff's talent management business.

In particular, Diller chafed with several of the board members from Live Nation, who resented Diller's efforts to control the company's direction, according to sources close to the board.

-- Alex Pham and Meg James

Photo: Barry Diller. Credit: Susan Goldman/Bloomberg.

Calling for an end to deceptive "bait and switch" tactics, the Federal Trade Commission Thursday announced a settlement with Live Nation Entertainment Inc.'s Ticketmaster unit that requires the company to provide full refunds to consumers who bought tickets to 14 Bruce Springsteen concerts at dramatically inflated prices.

FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz said thousands of fans were steered to TicketsNow, a resale site owned by Ticketmaster, where they were charged premiums of double, triple or quadruple the $90 face value.

Other Springsteen fans were sold phantom tickets that never materialized, Leibowitz said. Ticketmaster failed to tell buyers that many of the resale tickets advertised on TicketsNow.com were not “in hand," but being sold speculatively. TicketsNow was only offering to find tickets to the Springsteen concert at the Verizon Center in Washington.

"Who in their right mind would spend $1,600 on tickets that they may or may not get?" Leibowitz said. "Any fan who didn't get a refund -- they will get them from this settlement."

Leibowitz estimated the settlement could refund as much as $1 million to thousands of consumers who were duped.

The FTC also called for dramatic changes in disclosure to make clear to consumers whether tickets are actually "in hand" or if they're being sold speculatively. Leibowitz said his agency is sending out warning letters to 10 other major ticket resellers, recommending that they review their websites "to ensure that you are not making any misleading statements or failing to provide material information to prospective purchasers of tickets listed on your site.”

Leibowitz declined to identify which sites would receive the letter.

"It seems to me [that] by far the worst part of what we found, investigating this industry in the context of our investigation of Ticketmaster, is that they were selling these tickets they didn't have," Leibowitz said.

The issue came to the attention of the FTC when Springsteen publicly criticized Ticketmaster about its handling of sales for concerts in May and June. Fans who went scouring for tickets on the website were met with the message "no tickets found." The FTC charged that Ticketmaster used its website to direct unwitting consumers to its TicketsNow site, where tickets were sold at prices of up to $400 a seat -- a dramatic premium on the $90 face value.

"Many consumers had no idea what was going on," Leibowitz said.

Ticketmaster also displayed the same misleading Web page to consumers looking to buy tickets for many other events between October 2008 and February 2009, the agency charged.

-- Dawn C. Chmielewski

The Federal Trade Commission is expected to require Live Nation Entertainment Inc.'s Ticketmaster unit to provide refunds to people who purchased -- but never received -- tickets to a Bruce Springsteen concert that never arrived, according to the Wall Street Journal.

As many as 1,000 people who attempted to buy tickets to a May 18 concert in Washington, D.C., through the company's TicketsNow.com resale service never received them, the newspaper reported.

An FTC spokeswoman declined comment. Neither Live Nation nor Springsteen's manager could be reached Wednesday.

The Boss had criticized Ticketmaster last year for its handling of the "Working on a Dream" concert tour, saying fans complained of being directed  to buy tickets at inflated prices through the TicketsNow site, even though regularly-priced seats were still available through Ticketmaster. Ticketmaster issued an apology. 

It is unclear whether the FTC settlement with Live Nation deals with this issue.

Ticketmaster and Live Nation merged last month, after making several concessions to receive regulatory approval from the U.S. Department of Justice.

-- Dawn C. Chmielewski

Photo: Bruce Springsteen performs at the "Hope for Haiti Now: A Global Benefit for Earthquake Relief" concert in New York City. Credit: MTV