The live music sector had another good year in 2006. Despite some reports that highly priced tours from premiere league artists were underperforming, reports which led to speculation that the live industry was in danger of pricing itself out of the market, in the end the majority of those tours went on to sell out, many securing record revenues. So much so that the biggest tour of the year, The Rolling Stones' A Bigger Bang tour, was declared the top grossing tour ever, despite a number of dates being cancelled, initially after Keith Richards had a run in with a palm tree, and subsequently when Mick Jagger was told to rest his voice. The live sector across the board seemed healthy, with an ever growing number of music festivals seemingly able to find a sufficient chunk of the market to be viable. Nevertheless, as has become the norm, the biggest grossing tours came from long established artists like Madonna, Bon Jovi, U2, Barbra Streisand, Kenny Chesney and Aerosmith.
At a corporate level many eyes in the live sector remained on Live Nation, which continued to expand following its separation from the rest of the Clear Channel empire in 2005. In the US it acquired the House Of Blues network of clubs and arenas, while in the UK it announced its intent to acquire a 53% stake in the Academy Group of venues. The former went ahead without incident, but competition concerns have been raised about the latter with independent promoters claiming that, because Live Nation are both promoters and venue owners, if they acquire the Academy concert halls they will be far too dominant in the London market (given they already own several key venues in the capital, as well as managing the revamped Wembley Arena, which reopened this year). The UK's Competition Commission earlier this month said Live Nation will have to agree to sell off one or more of Academy's venues in order for the deal to get regulator approval. But Live Nation bosses have said they will lobby against that ruling, possibly by pointing out that the biggest music venue currently in development in the UK capital, due to open next year, is the rebranded Millennium Dome, operated by their main rival AEG, who also grew through acquisition this year (most notably in the UK by acquiring a stake in promoter Marshall Arts).
Elsewhere in the live sector another cause for concern was the growth in ticket touting allowed by online auction sites like eBay. An increasing number of promoters called for moves to stop individuals from being able to sell tickets to sell out events at considerable profit via online auctions, although the auction sites seemed generally unwilling to act - except last week when tickets for the charitable concert due to take place in London next year in memory of the late Princess Diana were put up for bid. But in the main, the auction sites stress that it is perfectly legal for gig tickets to be auctioned off, and therefore there is no need for them to stop such auctions. Politicians and promoters seem divided on what, if anything, can be done about the growing community of online touts. A possible solution is mobile ticketing, pilots of which proved generally successful in 2006. Of course touts could include a pay as you go mobile in the price of the ticket they are selling on, but doing so might be enough of a hassle to put most casual touts off. With that in mind those companies investing in mobile ticketing could find their technology is much in demand in the coming year.
And while we're on live music, let us remember the comedy that was Wembley Stadium, still not open for business even though a string of gigs were originally scheduled to take place there this summer just gone. Who knows if the stadium will finally be ready for those Muse gigs and the big Concert For Diana due to take place there next summer? Surely it will be - though I'll believe it when I see it.