Following reports on Tone Deaf earlier this year of the registering of US and UK live touring behemoth Live Nation in Australia and an announcement of Australian operations, it appears that the opening of an office is imminent. The company’s website www.livenation.com.au now has a holding page and industry pundits are tipping that the office will be located in Melbourne.

Live Nation is expected to shake up the touring industry in Australia with its unique approach expected to ruffle the feathers of the boys club of promoters such as Frontier Touring, Paul Dainty, Chugg Entertainment and so on; who are usually subject to American promoters playing them off against each other.

However, Live Nation is currently experiencing a lot of revenue pain as Americans baulk at their business model, which throws money at big live drawcard acts; and then recoups by charging through the nose for food, drinks, merchandise, parking and so on at entertainment venues it books – which it conveniently also owns. Even more conveniently, it also owns Ticketmaster, which adds extortionate fees to ticket purchases.

The peasants are revolting against the charges however, and staying home in droves while Live Nation scrambles to offer heavily discounted or even free tickets to increasingly empty venues in the hope that it can extract all the additional ‘discretionary’ charges it relies upon.

While Australia is a very different market, with most large venues served by public transport and Aussies generally wary of paying through the nose for merch, food and drinks; it’ll be VERY interesting to see how Live Nation dips its toe in the shark infested waters of live music promoting in Australia and just how much money the bleeding parent company in America can afford to lose on operations locally while it implements its now questionable business model.

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