LN Opens South Korea Office

Live Nation announced opening an office in South Korea called Live Nation Korea, which will join affiliated offices in Hong Kong, Singapore and Beijing as Live Nation Far East.

“Out strategy is to continue our international expansion into penetrated regions and identify new markets to deliver our unique live experience product,” said Live Nation president and CEO Michael Rapino. “South Korea is the world’s 13th-largest economy and the its 12th-biggest music market, not to mention the third-largest music market in Asia.”

Alan Ridgeway, president of Live Nation International and Emerging Markets, added, “With a growing interest from international artists to perform in South Korea, this is a natural step for us to be able to serve artists and fans better in Korea. We also have plans to work with Korean artists both in Korea and internationally to meet the expanding demand around the world for the K-pop phenomenon.”

In related news, some media have been reporting that Live Nation will also become active in Japan sometime in 2012 through a partnership with Creativeman Productions, one of the country’s leading music promoters.

Creativeman CEO Naoki Shimizu reportedly announced the deal at his company’s Christmas party Dec. 19.

The alliance will make it easier for Creativeman to present in Japan foreign acts that work with Live Nation, such as Madonna and U2.