Live Nation has hired an Internet and music industry veteran to help boost its new data analytics initiative with media measurement company BigChampagne.
The live entertainment and ticketing company recently hired former Warner Music Group senior vice president Ethan Kaplan as vice president of product development, and he will help oversee Live Nation’s move toward increased data mining.
By utilizing BigChampagne’s Ultimate Chart platform, Live Nation is looking to dig deep into data extracted from its ticketing, merchandising, sponsorship, social media and other efforts to further brand and grow its business in the face of increased competition. Ultimate Chart can measure the amount of “buzz” an artist has by studying those elements, which Live Nation can then use to help it market to different audiences.
“We’re extending what we know about people, relevant experiences — in this case, live events — and proximity for things happening near by you, and we’re going to apply our real-time analytics engine to solving those fan problems,” BigChampagne founder Eric Garland told Fast Company last week. Garland has been named general manager of LiveNation.com.
Live Nation boasts of having a customer database of current and past customers of more than 180 million names, and Garland believes that those names contain a treasure trove of information that will help to create “much more compelling and engaging experience around live events.”
The company started this initiative earlier this year with the creation of Live Analytics through its Ticketmaster division, which mines and shares customer data with the company’s venue clients.
Created through a partnership with Teradata, Live Analytics collects and customizes data on customer preferences, ticketing trends, industry benchmarks and other information to help venues better market their shows and services.
While at Warner Music Group, which he left in January of this year, Kaplan worked on technology projects for Madonna, Green Day, Metallica and Red Hot Chili Peppers, among others.
At the time he left Warner Music, Kaplan wrote in his blog that the years ahead could be difficult for the music industry, but he remains optimistic.
“Times like these are not easy for record companies, nor anyone who has an economic model tied to things that are non-corporeal where they once were,” Kaplan wrote. “The next years won’t be easy either, but I think the trajectory is sound if executed well.”
