004BILB06.QXP 2/5/09 6:52 PM Page 1 PUBLISHER HOWARD APPELBAUM EDITORIAL DIRECTOR BILL WERDE EDITORIAL EXECUTIVE EDITOR: ROBERT LEVINE 646-654-4707 DEPUTY EDITOR: Louis Hau 646-654-4708 SENIOR EDITORS: Jonathan Cohen 646-654-5582; Ann Donahue 323-525-2292 SPECIAL FEATURES EDITOR: Thom Duffy 646-654-4716 EDITORIALS | COMMENTARY | LETTERS INTERNATIONAL BUREAU CHIEF: Mark Sutherland 011-44-207-420-6155 OPINION EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF CONTENT AND PROGRAMMING FOR LATIN MUSIC AND ENTERTAINMENT: Leila Cobo (Miami) 305-361-5279 EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF CONTENT AND PROGRAMMING FOR TOURING AND LIVE ENTERTAINMENT: Ray Waddell (Nashville) 615-431-0441 EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF CONTENT AND PROGRAMMING FOR DIGITAL/MOBILE: Antony Bruno (Denver) 303-771-1342 SENIOR CORRESPONDENTS: Ed Christman (Retail) 646-654-4723; Paul Heine (Radio) 646-654-4669; Kamau High (Branding) 646-654-5297; Gail Mitchell (R&B) 323-525-2289; Chuck Taylor (Pop) 646-654-4729; Tom Ferguson (Deputy Global Editor) 011-44-207-420-6069 CORRESPONDENTS: Ayala Ben-Yehuda (Latin) 323-525-2293; Mike Boyle (Rock) 646-654-4727; Hillary Crosley (R&B/Hip-Hop) 646-654-4647; Cortney Harding (Indies) 646-654-5592; Mitchell Peters 323-525-2322; Ken Tucker (Radio) 615-712-6639 INTERNATIONAL: Lars Brandle (Australia), Wolfgang Spahr (Germany), Robert Thompson (Canada) BILLBOARD.BIZ NEWS EDITOR: Chris M. Walsh 646-654-4904 Ticket Monster? GLOBAL NEWS EDITOR: Andre Paine 011-44-207-420-6068 BILLBOARD.COM EDITOR: Jessica Letkemann 646-654-5536 A Possible Live Nation-Ticketmaster Merger Could Hurt The Music Business ONLINE EDITORS: Mariel Concepcion (Billboard.com) 646-654-4780; Katie Hasty (Billboard.com) 646-654-4650 COPY CHIEF: Chris Woods BY DON VACCARO COPY EDITOR: Christa Titus Front Line, the management company SENIOR COPY EDITOR, SPECIAL FEATURES: Wayne Robins 646-654-4713 owned by Ticketmaster? What about the ASSOCIATE EDITOR, SPECIAL FEATURES: Evie Nagy 646-654-4709 CONTRIBUTORS: Jim Bessman, Larry Blumenfeld, Fred Bronson, Chuck Eddy, Juliana Koranteng, The potential merger talks between Live best on-sale dates or set times? Kerri Mason, Deborah Evans Price, Paul Sexton, Steve Traiman, Anastasia Tsioulcas SPECIAL PROJECTS MANAGER: Kristina Tunzi Nation and Ticketmaster, which came to DESIGN & PHOTOGRAPHY light recently in the Wall Street Journal, Promoters: Promoters and other tick- ART DIRECTOR: Christine Bower-Wright SENIOR DESIGNER: Greg Grabowy PHOTO EDITOR: Amelia Halverson may make good business sense for the eting companies would obviously have CHARTS & RESEARCH companies involved. But it’s bad for every- a hard time competing against such a DIRECTOR OF CHARTS: SILVIO PIETROLUONGO ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR OF CHARTS: Raphael George one else in the industry: venues, artists, dominant entity. SENIOR CHART MANAGERS: Keith Caulfield (The Billboard 200, Heatseekers, Cast, Compilations, Digital Albums, Internet, Pop Catalog, Soundtracks; L.A.), Wade Jessen (Bluegrass, Country, managers, agents, promoters and fans. Christian, Gospel; Nashville) CHART MANAGERS: Bob Allen (Boxscore; Nashville), Anthony Colombo (Rock, Spotlight Recaps, I don’t think the deal can be com- Fans—and the Boss: If so much of live Video), Mary DeCroce (Blues, Kid Audio; Nashville), Raphael George (R&B/Hip-Hop, Rhythmic, Rap), Gordon Murray (Comedy, Dance, Electronic, Jazz, New Age, Reggae, Social Network, World), pleted. With a new sheriff in Washing- entertainment is controlled by one com- Silvio Pietroluongo (The Billboard Hot 100, Hot Digital Songs), Paul Pomfret (Hits of the World; London), Gary Trust (Adult Contemporary, Adult Top 40, Pop 100, Mainstream Top 40), ton, D.C., a merger that is so bad for pany, it’s inevitable that ticket prices Alex Vitoulis (Classical) CHART PRODUCTION MANAGER: Michael Cusson everyone involved in and affected by live will rise. So will service fees. Ultimately ASSOCIATE CHART PRODUCTION MANAGER: Alex Vitoulis entertainment—a business that touches tickets could go directly to the second- BILLBOARD RESEARCH MANAGER: Gordon Murray 646-654-4633 DIGITAL so many of us on a consistently positive ary market. VICE PRESIDENT, DIGITAL: JOSHUA ENGROFF DIRECTOR, MARKET DEVELOPMENT: Eric Ward basis—won’t be allowed to happen. That’s why Bruce Springsteen and his MANAGER, MARKET DEVELOPMENT: Justin Harris Who will hurt by this deal? I think the manager, Jon Landau, wrote a letter to ADVERTISING SALES VICE PRESIDENT, SALES/ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER: JEREMY LEVINE 646-654-4627 better question is, who won’t be? fans that came out against the merger. NATIONAL SALES DIRECTOR/DIGITAL & CONSUMER: Derek Sentner 646-654-4616 Other artists and event producers will DIRECTOR, BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT & EAST COAST SALES: Cindy Mata 646-654-4710 EAST COAST SALES: Ryan Bleich 646-654-4635 Venues: Venues top the list of industry VACCARO jump on the bandwagon with similar DIRECTOR, SPECIAL FEATURES & WEST COAST SALES: Aki Kaneko 323-525-2299 MIDWEST SALES DIRECTOR: Alana Schlifke 312-583-5514 players that would suffer in such a statements. Artists will vent their frustra- NASHVILLE: Lee Ann Photoglo 615-383-1573 (Labels); Cynthia Mellow 615-352-0265 (Touring) merger. SMG’s recent move to switch venues would have to balance their need tions with the tanking economy, but their ADVERTISING DIRECTOR DETROIT: Kathy Vargo 248-687-9168 ADVERTISING DIRECTOR EUROPE/U.K.: Frederic Fenucci 011-44-207-420-6075 its ticketing operations from Ticketmas- to book the right entertainment at the anger will focus on the possible merger. INSIDE ACCOUNT REP: Jeff Serrette 646-654-4697 MANAGING DIRECTOR/LATIN: Gene Smith 973-746-2520 ter to Live Nation created real bitterness right price with the risk of alienating a With consumers hurting and Wall Street LATIN AMERICA/MIAMI: Marcia Olival 305-864-7578, Fax: 305-864-3227 at Ticketmaster, causing then-CEO Sean concert giant and thus losing shows that greed fresh in the minds of Americans, ASIA-PACIFIC/AUSTRALIA: Linda Matich 612-9440-7777, Fax: 612-9440-7788 JAPAN: Aki Kaneko 323-525-2299 Moriarity to issue a statement insinuat- could have played the building. the negative reaction will have legs. MANAGER OF SALES ANALYTICS: Mirna Gomez 646-654-4695 ADVERTISING COORDINATOR: Alexandra Hartz 646-654-5581 ing that his company might enter the Whether you’re in the music business MARKETING venue management business if SMG Artists, managers, agents: The pro- or just a fan of live entertainment, the SENIOR MARKETING DIRECTOR: LILA GERSON 646-654-4629 EVENT MARKETING MANAGER: Nicole Carbone 646-654-4634 followed through with its plans. The posed merger could restrict the oppor- specter of a live entertainment super MARKETING MANAGER: Kerri Bergman 646.654.4617 SALES/MARKETING ART DIRECTOR: Melissa Subatch message was clear: If you play in my tunities of artists who aren’t part of the power should frighten you. •••• SALES/MARKETING DESIGN MANAGER: Kim Grasing sandbox, I’ll look for ways to hurt you. combined entity to play at the venues AUDIENCE MARKETING AUDIENCE MARKETING DIRECTOR: FRANCES DAVIS If a merger goes through, it would be served by Ticketmaster and those run Don Vaccaro is founder/CEO of AUDIENCE MARKETING MANAGER (GROUP): Michele Larsen even easier to find new ways. Not only by Live Nation. Managers and agents TicketNetwork.com, an online ticket AUDIENCE MARKETING ASSISTANT MANAGER: Nidia Augustin SUBSCRIPTIONS: 800-658-8372 (U.S. Toll Free) 847-559-7531 (International) could venues lose revenue sharing funds would also lose their ability to work with exchange. He has more than 25 years of LICENSING, EVENTS & REPRINTS from ticket service charges, they could their clients as well as they had before experience in the secondary ticket DIRECTOR, BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT & LICENSING: ANDREW MIN [email protected] EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, CONFERENCES & SPECIAL EVENTS: MICHELE JACANGELO face restrictions on the companies they the merger. Could certain marketing op- market, including a decade in industry- SPONSORSHIP/BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT MANAGER Cebele Marquez 646-654-4648 SPONSORSHIP SALES MANAGERS: Matthew Carona 646-654-5115; Kim Griffiths 646-654-4718 could partner with. Perhaps worst of all, portunities be reserved for clients of related software development. SPECIAL EVENTS DIRECTOR: Margaret O’Shea SPECIAL EVENTS MANAGER: Lisa DiAntonio EVENT CLIENT SERVICES MANAGER: Courtney Marks DIRECTOR, LICENSING & CUSTOM MEDIA: Diane Driscoll 646-654-4677 GROUP FINANCIAL DIRECTOR: Barbara Grieninger 646-654-4675 MANAGER, INTERNATIONAL LICENSING & SALES: Angeline Biesheuvel [email protected] FEEDBACK MAGAZINE REPRINTS: Doug Kline - 1-800-290-5460 Ext. 133 or [email protected] PRODUCTION PRODUCTION DIRECTOR: TERRENCE C. SANDERS ADVERTISING PRODUCTION MANAGER: Chris Dexter EDITORIAL PRODUCTION SUPERVISOR/QPS ADMINISTRATOR: Anthony T. Stallings SYSTEMS/TECHNOLOGY SUPERVISOR: Barry Bishin BILLBOARD.COM SENIOR COMPOSITION TECHNICIAN: Susan Chicola COMPOSITION TECHNICIAN: Rodger Leonard POLL I’m only ADVERTISING GRAPHIC ARTIST: Ray Carlson OPERATIONS How is the economy affecting your buying a VICE PRESIDENT/CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER: ANDY BILBAO HUMAN RESOURCES DIRECTOR: BILL FINTON music habits? TOTAL VOTES: 9,034 33% few songs LEGAL COUNSEL: MARK MILLER and albums by my favorite DISTRIBUTION DIRECTOR: Lou Bradfield PERMISSIONS COORDINATOR/ASSISTANT TO PUBLISHER: Dana Parra 646-654-4696 8% I’m going to fewer concerts. artists this year. BILLING: Liza Perez VICE PRESIDENT, MANUFACTURING AND DISTRIBUTION: Jennifer Grego VICE PRESIDENT, AUDIENCE MARKETING: Joanne Wheatley 11% I’m only buying music; no