Latham Makes Splash At Music Tank

Live Nation international COO Paul Latham has caused a big ripple at Music Tank over an “incendiary” e-mail he sent criticising the group’s plan to discuss how greedy promoters are killing off the live music boom.

The Sept. 23 meeting of the music biz think tank, which regularly gathers at the PRS building in London’s Berner Street, was scheduled to talk about how the promoters’ “rush to make money from the golden goose” might result in them making concert tickets as expensive as “foie gras.”

Latham’s e-mail said he felt the gathering should “steer clear of broad-sweeping statements that are more akin to red-top journalism than informed debate.”

It also showed he was more than a little irked because he feels PRS, which hosts Music Tank, is the biggest “bounty hunter” in the business. The collection agency is trying to drive up the flat-rate 3 percent of box office it currently receives.

Latham also attacked other statements in the Music Tank promo material that referred to how the major promoters’ bid to “repair the holes in their balance sheets” has changed the shape of the live music industry.

The promo material cited his company’s 360-degree deal with Madonna, promoters selling tickets at exorbitant prices and heavily discounting them as the event date gets closer, and how surcharges on tickets are driving up prices.

Apart from taking the opportunity to repeat the new company mantra about what LN will be doing to drive down ticket prices, Latham dismissed criticism of the Madonna deal by saying it isn’t a typical LN deal and is a minute percentage of the company’s activity.

He also said there are very few examples of heavily discounted tickets being sold in the UK, and that ticket booking fees in the UK are very reasonable compared with fees in the U.S. and Germany.

“Live Nation has single-handedly contributed more to the U.S. touring slump than anyone else,” Kilimanjaro Live chief Stuart Galbraith told the Sept. 23 Music Tank, apparently determined his former employer wasn’t going to get off too lightly.