Buying Stocks on the Day of the Crash
brianwilson
Posts: 406
in The Porch
Sorry for the cheese ball title
https://www.barrons.com/amp/articles/ticketmaster-pearl-jam-good-news-for-live-nations-stock-51580241758
p.s. yes, as an old school member since the early 90's, I am a little bitter about my experience with the process of ticketing this tour. Although there isn't a bad seat and the sound is great at SDSU, I can't fork over hundreds for a seat.
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"I know I was born and I know that I'll die, the in between is mine"
Ticketmaster and Pearl Jam Have Made Up. Why That’s Good News for Live Nation’s Stock.
For insight into where the music industry is headed, one’s initial instinct might be to look toward 18-year-old Billie Eilish, who recently became the youngest person and first woman to simultaneously win four major Grammy awards, including Album of the Year, Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best New Artist.
But if you want to know the future, you must first study the past. Or more specifically, Seattle in the mid-1990s, says analyst Brandon Ross of Lightshed Partners.
It was there and then that Pearl Jam was born. And since bursting onto the city’s grunge scene with its 1991 debut album Ten, which sold 13 million copies in the U.S., the legendary rock band has continued to thrive even as popular music moved elsewhere.
The key to Pearl Jam’s longevity? Members Eddie Vedder, Stone Gossard, Mike McCready, Jeff Ament, and Matt Cameron would likely credit their success to the close relationship they have cultivated with fans; a relationship that’s about to change and carries significant, if subtle implications for the concert business as a whole.
Last week, tickets went on sale for their 16-date North American tour. It was also revealed that the band will be playing exclusively Ticketmaster-ticketed venues and has relinquished power over the Ten Club, which pre-sold tickets to active members of the Pearl Jam fan organization.
The announcement marks the end of a longstanding feud with the ticketing giant. Pearl Jam was a vocal critic of Ticketmaster even prior to the company’s 2010 merger with events promoter Live Nation Entertainment (ticker: LVY). Pearl Jam had alleged that Ticketmaster was a monopoly that disenfranchised artists and overcharged consumers. The rockers had even sued (unsuccessfully) Ticketmaster in the 1990s.
Times have changed. Ross notes that Live Nation President and CEO Michael Rapino recognizes the value of artist autonomy.
In order to woo their sworn enemy, Ticketmaster sought to integrate the Ten Club and verify dedicated fans according to their listening and purchasing behavior. This ensured that a portion of the seats would be allocated to bona fide Pearl Jam super fans at a democratic price.
Nontransferable “safetix” were also implemented to ensure third-party brokers couldn’t get their hands on tickets for resale beyond an official exchange where tickets can only be sold at face value.
In Ross’s view, these technological improvements have empowered an artist-first approach capable of generating incredible value. “With Ticketmaster building further capabilities, especially around digital ticketing, we expect it to offer artists not only even more control, but rich data sets on their fans, helping artists to develop stronger relationships with those fans and marketing capabilities,” the analyst wrote.
In the short term, Live Nation is likely to see growth in market share as the relationship between Ticketmaster and artists continues to improve. Ross goes as far as to wonder if this could initiate a move away from conventional business models, whereby North American venues are exclusively partnered with ticket providers.
Whilst the present situation is highly profitable for Live Nation, if Ticketmaster is able to gain more concert market share through the combination of its vertical integration and artist demand, a restructure may be on the horizon.
Pearl Jam will release its 11th studio album, Gigaton, on March 27. Live Nation stock is up 1.9% to $72.25 in Tuesday afternoon trading.