LN To Cut Ticket Prices

The newly merged Live Nation and Ticketmaster will be able to reduce the cost of tickets by saving on costs, according to Paul Latham, LN’s London-based chief ops officer for international music.

Latham told the BBC’s Newsbeat that Live Nation Entertainment, which launched in May when the world’s biggest promoter joined forces with the biggest ticket-seller, could “take out some of the costs that previously would have been there that no longer exist.”

“One of the results of Ticketmaster being merged with Live Nation is we can look at the whole booking fee structure”, he explained.

The news comes five weeks after American music industry blogger Bob Lefsetz sparked an outbreak of global news stories by claiming that Live Nation had canceled as many as 200 shows due to poor ticket sales.

Although he didn’t give any details of when the cheaper tickets would be available, or exactly how cheap they would be, Latham did say the company was “reacting to the marketplace.”

“There is no interest in higher ticket prices or high charges”, he said. “We do want cheaper ticket prices which is why we’re looking at advances in technology, print at home, ticketless events – all of these innovations will come about more quickly.

“Certainly the ticket buying customer will benefit from that.”