LN Consolidates Music Ops

Live Nation’s Bruce Eskowitz becomes CEO of North American Music and Jason Garner is promoted to president of North American Concerts in a restructuring of the company’s music operations in the wake of its acquisition of House of Blues Entertainment.

Former President of Live Music Charlie Walker resigned January 18th to pursue another business opportunity with longtime associates Charles Attal and Charlie Jones in Austin, Texas.

The reorganization, announced January 24th, consolidates LN’s North American concert promotion, venue operation and sponsorship and alliances business under a single division, according to Live Nation.

"This reorganization reflects the evolution of our structure to focus on our core live music business," Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino said in a statement. "Our concert division is the engine that drives music fans to our local market venues which, in turn, generates sponsorship and alliances revenue for us.

"By uniting our concert booking division with our venues and alliances division under common leadership, we believe we will better align the divisions’ agendas and achieve better results."

With the promotion, Eskowitz will direct the North American local and national live music strategy, including concert promotion, venue management and sponsorship / alliances. He will also oversee the management and expansion of the House of Blues clubs division, as well as the company’s venue portfolio in the small and mid-size level.

Garner will oversee North American concert promotion.

Russell Wallach has been named president of Alliances; Don Watson, executive VP of House of Blues; and David Shuman, executive VP of North American finance.

The consolidation leaves Live Nation’s music business with four major divisions: North American Music; International Music, led by Carl Pernow and Paul Latham (U.K.); Global Touring, led by Arthur Fogal; and Global Digital, headed up by Bryan Perez.