These review of the year things always seem to include a sentence were we remark what another good year the live sector has had. And what another good year the live sector has had. Despite the terrible weather meaning many open air music events were complete wash outs.
There were quite a few corporate manoeuvres in the live sector too - and not just Live Nation's expansions. In the UK the MAMA Group, owners of the Barfly network, expanded somewhat by acquiring two London venues from the aforementioned Live Nation (which LN were forced to sell by competition authorities to enable them to buy a stake in the Academy Music Group) and then by acquiring most of the venues owned by Mean Fiddler, which moved out of venue management to concentrate on festival promotion - changing its name to Festival Republic in the process. And, of course, the UK saw two big new music venues open this year. The Wembley Stadium finally opened its doors, and played host to various gigs, while on the other side of the capital AEG's The O2 opened on the Millennium Dome site, quickly turning one of the UK's biggest laughing stocks into a rather credible entertainment centre.
But the ongoing story in the live sector was the secondary ticketing debate. The live sector was already getting edgy about the growth in tickets being resold for profit by fans and tours on the net, and they got edgier this year as the secondary ticketing phenomenon further grew. The whole thing got more exposure thanks to Michael Eavis and Harvey Goldsmith's attempts to fight the touts - by introducing strict ticketing rules on Glastonbury and the Led Zepp reunion concert respectively. But things go more confusing this year because a number of new websites took off, specifically designed for secondary ticket sales, but claiming to be more music industry friendly than say eBay. There was divided opinion among the music business as to whether they should be working with these sites. Late in the year the artist management community suggested they should - but only if those sites agreed to pass a portion of their profits back to the industry through a 'Resale Rights Society'. That proposal is yet to get the approval of many of the big resale sites and major players in the live sector, so this debate, methinks, will continued well in to the New Year.