Pandora Media Acquires Ticketfly

How does a powerhouse internet radio station compete with those powerhouse businesses that make money off of live music? Simple, get in on the same business and make a name for yourself.

On Wednesday (Oct. 7), it was confirmed that Pandora Media had acquired Ticketfly, a somewhat competitor to Live Nation and Ticketmaster. The acquisition of Ticketfly reportedly cost the media company $450 million in cash and stock. Though Ticketfly is not as popular or widely known as Ticketmaster or Live Nation (Live Nation and Ticketmaster sold 184 million ticket in 2014 while Ticketfly sold 16 million in the same year), the latter sells tickets to concerts and other types of events for about 1,200 different venues and festivals including the Pitchfork Music Festival and hipster paradise, Burning Man.>

“This is a game-changer for Pandora – and much more importantly – a game-changer for music,” said Brian McAndrews, chief executive officer at Pandora. “Over the past 10 years, we have amassed the largest, most engaged audience in streaming music history. With Ticketfly, we will thrill music lovers and lift ticket sales for artists as the most effective marketplace for connecting music makers and fans.”

“Pandora’s entry into live events is a watershed moment for the music industry and will forever change the landscape for artists, promoters and fans,” said Andrew Dreskin, co-founder and chief executive officer of Ticketfly. “Ticketfly and Pandora are a perfect fit: two companies that are extraordinarily passionate about music and improving the experience for the entire ecosystem. The combination of Ticketfly and Pandora will be a marketing and event discovery powerhouse, giving venues and promoters unprecedented access to a massive and targeted audience of nearly 80 million music fans.”

This isn’t Pandora’s first major purchase in 2015. Back in May, the company purchased Next Big Sound, a music data service that tracks the popularity of songs online and in social networks.

Live Nation Buys Controlling Stake in Bonnaroo

Live Nation can now add another music festival to their long growing roster of music-centric events; Bonnaroo.

Last night, Billboard and several other publications began to report that the large concert venture had purchased a controlling stake in the Tennessee-based music festival.

As of now, Live Nation owns stakes in over 60 music festivals including: Austin City Limits, Lollapalooza, Reading and Leeds, T in the Park, and many more.

According to reports, Superfly Production and AC Entertainment, who founded the festival, will continue to run the day-to-day operations for the festival which is set to take place in early June.

“We are strengthening our commitment to cater the best possible experience at Bonnaroo,” said Rick Farman, co-founder of Superfly.

“Through this partnership with Live Nation, we’re even more empowered to enhance the festival while preserving the integrity of the event that we’ve thoughtfully built over the past 14 years.”

“Partnering with Live Nation is a milestone for Bonnaroo. It opens up tremendous opportunities for us to continue to evolve the Bonnaroo experience in an exciting powerful way,” said Ashley Capps, founder AC Entertainment.

But the controlling stake in the festival isn’t the only thing Live Nation has acquired. The concert promoter has also purchased a share of the Bonnaroo property, Great Stage Park, also known as “The Farm.”

No telling what this means for the festival. Some say that it could be a good thing, like the founders claim, but it can also work against them especially if Live Nation decides to up the price of tickets which already costs attendees $350 for the weekend.

All that can be done is sit back and see.

This year’s line-up is set to take place from June 11-14 and will feature performances by Billy Joel, Kendrick Lamar, and Deadmau5

Trent Reznor Not Leaving Beats Electronics

Over the weekend, word had gotten around that Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor would be leaving Beats Electronics, the company to which the rocker is the Chief Creative Officer for. The rumor began after Apple purchased the company for $3 billion earlier in the week, but according to a spokesperson for the company, it is not true.
 
“They are all false” the spokesperson told Rolling Stone when asked about it. Since the initial talks began about the buyout, Reznor has been quiet, not once confirming or denying the buyout rumor that eventually became a reality. At the present time, it is unclear what Reznor’s role and responsibilities will be with the newly purchased company.

The singer was hired back int he beginning of 2013 to help build the company’s streaming service with Beats co-founder Jimmy Iovine. At the time Iovine said that Reznor would “bring an emotional connection back to the act of music discovery.”

Three months after being asked to join forces with the company on their new project, Reznor revealed the news to his fans via Facebook.
For Reznor, joining the company was like completing the circle because Iovine was the one who signed Nine Inch Nails to Interscope.
 
“It was pretty mind-blowing,” Reznor told Rolling Stone. “He asked me to solve a problem with the hardware he’d been having- an interesting riddle to me. I’d hear him speaking excitedly about his concept of a streaming service with curation at the forefront. My eyes lit up. I said ‘Hey, in my own world, I’d agree that a product like that feels like the right move, from a consumer standpoint.’ We started executing that. I think I’m the longest employee here now at this point.”

Considering how Reznor feels about Apple, it would not have been much of a surprise that “he left” rumors had begun. Reznor has previously been critical of them, slamming the company in 2009 after the iTunes Store banned Nine Inch Nails’ The Downward Spiral app.

“You can buy ‘The Downward Fucking Spiral’ on iTunes,” he said, “but you can’t allow an iPhone app that may have a song with a bad word somewhere in it …Hey Apple, I just got some spam about fucking hot Asian teens through your e-mail program. I just saw two guys having explicit anal sex right there in Safari! On my iPhone! Come on Apple, think your policies through and for fuck’s sake get your app approval scenario together.”