On the record

Jim Carrollon music

Music giant's strategy is to buy out local promoters

It has been a busy week for live music giants Live Nation - both in Ireland and abroad.

While Live Nation's sole Irish gig to date has been the management of the Point venue in Dublin, its influence on the domestic scene is set to increase. Venue owner Harry Crosbie announced in an interview in The Irish Times last week that Live Nation would look after all his venues, including Vicar Street and mooted new venues Vicar Street 2 and the Grand Canal Square theatre.

However, this may not be the last move by the company in the Irish live music market this year. The company's long-standing global policy has been to buy out successful promoters and live venue operators in profitable territories, so it stands to reason that the company may well be considering a similar acquisition here.

Live Nation would not have to look far for an ideal fit as the company already has a significant working relationship with promoter Denis Desmond. The MCD boss established investment vehicle Hamsard with Live Nation to acquire the Mean Fiddler business, now rebranded in the UK as Festival Republic.

Further afield, there was confirmation of Live Nation's partnership deal with Madonna. The 10-year deal, worth a reputed $120 million, will cover all of the artist's future music and music-related business ventures including touring, merchandising, websites and sponsorship agreements.

It will be interesting to see how future Madonna releases will perform, especially given a slide in music quality in recent years.

Either way, we can expect to see Madonna on stage for many years to come, which is good news for her former label, Warner Music, as they still control her back catalogue.

Live Nation has now established the Artist Nation division as an one-stop shop to oversee the activities of acts such as Madonna. The company is now very much in the business of signing acts. However, it is likely to concentrate on those heritage acts with established fanbases coming to the end of their major-label contracts, rather than new bands.