Concert industry giant Live Nation has already risen to the top of the music industry through their control over both concert promotion and ticket sales. On November 20, 2012, the company took a step toward dominating the internet as well with the launch of Live Nation’s new website.
The website revamping was undertaken to increase site visits, and was spearheaded by Live Nation Labs co-founder/LiveNation.com GM Eric Garland, the former head of BigChampagne, a media tracking and tech company that was acquired by Live Nation in 2011. The revamp was focused on adding new elements to the site including social media links and mobile applications.
The site boasts several new features aimed at increasing fan experiences as well as site traffic. “It started in conversations between [Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino] and me about a more engaged fanbase and how to provide fans with a place to celebrate their passion for live music,” Garland said in an interview with Billboard. “The goal is now to get them to stay and come more often. My first concern is not whether they buy a ticket. It’s a huge win for us with fans and for the business if they merely get in the habit of sharing their passion and experiences with our community.”
The first of the site’s new features is a “Concert Countdown” clock. Each event page contains a countdown clock, alerting the consumer as to the number of days, hours, minutes, and seconds remaining until the upcoming event. Also available on the page are links to purchase tickets to the event, as well as links to social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter, so that the visitor can inform friends of the event.
Another new feature is the “Showbook,” which will provide users with the opportunity to upload their own concert photos to the site. The feature will also be able to aggregate photos from various social media sites, with the goal of making the site “a better place to find and participate in a community of fans who love the things you do,” according to Garland.
Potentially the most interesting new addition to the site is the “One Nation” video channel. The channel will contain all original content, created from various sources including concert footage and content direct from Live Nation musical artists. Artist-specific content will also be available on each artist’s page within the site. Garland told Billboard that the aim of the feature will be to eventually have artists provide the site with videos discussing their upcoming tours, album releases, and other upcoming events. Fans would then be able to upload videos of their own, with the hope of eventually creating an online video dialogue between the artists and their fans.
The site will also boast an updated search feature that will allow users to search for ticket information and artist information in under a second. While the recent revamp and site additions will certainly make LiveNation.com more user friendly, these will certainly not be the last major changes to the site. New features are expected to roll out in the coming months.
