Andre Yoskowitz
12 Nov 2008 14:41
Live Nation, which has spent hundreds of millions of dollars attracting acts such as U2, Jay-Z, Nickelback and Madonna has announced it will soon begin selling DRM-free MP3s from artist's individual pages. So far, three of the Big 4 labels have signed on with Live Nation.
Live Nation has also confirmed it will be setting up its own ticketing service to compete with Ticketmaster and the company can now claim that it handles everything from merchandise to distribution and every step in between.
Sony Music, Universal Music Group and EMI have all signed on and negotiations with the last major label are still in progress. Artist have complained that iTunes, the current market share leader, does not have strong "artist pages" and lose sales because of it.
"Looking ahead, our primary goal remains centered on maximizing our global concert pipe for our client – the artist," explained president and CEO Michael Rapino, "and expanding into direct ticketing/online distribution, completing the world's only concert-to-fan direct platform for artists."