“Music Manager Guy Oseary Joins viagogo’s Advisory Board”
London, ENG (viagogo) October 15, 2008 – Guy Oseary, who manages such music industry stars as Madonna and Lenny Kravitz, is joining viagogo’s advisory board. Mr Oseary will bring his considerable knowledge of the entertainment business to viagogo as it continues to build on its position in the industry and strike eye catching deals.
Mr Oseary is well placed to offer such advice after negotiating the most talked about and groundbreaking deal in music business by partnering Madonna with Live Nation, the number one touring promotion company in the world. He will help viagogo to continue its innovation of the secondary ticketing market and to offer unique solutions to, artists, promoters and venues.
He began his career in the entertainment business at what was to become Maverick Records when he was only 17. He rose quickly through the ranks to chairman of the label and guided them to sell over 100 million albums worldwide and secured its spot as one of the industry’s leading boutique record labels.
In 2005 Guy became the manager for his longtime business partner Madonna and guided her through the 2006 “Confessions” worldwide tour, one of the top-grossing tours of all time. Her latest studio album “Hard Candy” has now reached #1 in 37 countries since its release on April 30th.
This new partnership follows viagogo being named the Official Premium and Secondary Ticketing Partner of Madonna’s Sticky & Sweet tour in Europe, excluding Germany and Italy. This is the first time an artist has signed a deal of this kind and it follows similar landmark deals that viagogo has initiated with Warner Music and Live Nation.
Guy Oseary said, “I welcome viagogo’s fresh approach to the entertainment industry and I look forward to helping them build more innovative partnerships in the future. “
Commenting on the news, Eric Baker, CEO of viagogo said: “We are delighted that Guy Oseary has decided to join our advisory board. It has long been our intention to work with the industry and Guy has an outstanding track record in the music and entertainment business. We intend to use his passion and knowledge to strengthen our offering to the millions of people who use our site to buy tickets in a safe, secure and 100% guaranteed way.”
About viagogo
viagogo is Europe’s leading ticket exchange that allows people to buy and sell live event tickets in a safe and 100% guaranteed way. viagogo is bringing efficiency and transparency to what has traditionally been a murky marketplace. By managing payment and delivery, viagogo guarantees that buyers will receive their tickets and sellers will receive payment. For this service, viagogo takes a commission which is a percentage of each exchange.
viagogo was launched in August 2006 with landmark deals to become the official secondary ticketing partner of two of the leading English football clubs Manchester United and Chelsea, making it the only way of legally re-selling tickets to these clubs, due to the special laws in England. Similar partnerships followed with German giants Bayern Munich, Everton, Portsmouth, Hearts and leading rugby clubs, Leicester Tigers and London Wasps.
In August 2007, viagogo launched operations in the U.S. with an exclusive partnership with the NFL’s Cleveland Browns.
Deals followed with the likes of the Independent and Lastminute.com and Warner Music International became the first music label to partner with a secondary ticketing company. A deal between viagogo and Live Nation in the Netherlands was the first ever partnership between a secondary ticketing company and a music promotion company. viagogo pioneered the first charity auctions, working directly with music artists such as James Blunt and Peter Gabriel.
In May 2008, viagogo struck a partnership with the biggest female recording artist in the world. It became the official premium and secondary ticketing partner for Madonna’s Sticky and Sweet European tour. This is the first time an artist has signed a deal of this kind, signalling a dramatic shift for both the recording and ticketing industries and proving viagogo to be a true market leader.
viagogo now provides fans with its safe, secure exchange in the UK, Germany, France, Netherlands and the US. Further expansion across Europe will follow in the near future.
viagogo was set up by Eric Baker, the co-founder of StubHub.com, the leading online secondary ticketing company in the US that was acquired in March 2007 by eBay for $307m.
For more information please contact
Harry Porter at freud communications on 0203 003 6380
[email protected]
