Does the new controversial Arizona immigration law impact concert fans, promoters and artists? Is Live Nation-Ticketmaster second-guessing their merger? Let’s get answers to those questions and take a look at some live music news.
As first, I didn’t think of their would be any direct implications that the new Arizona Immigration law would have on concert culture. But according to this Billboard report, the impact of the controversial law is being fully felt by concert fans and artists in Arizona.
As Billboard reports, the new immigration law has forced a Tucson radio station to postpone a June 6 concert featuring some of the biggest names in regional Mexican music.
They say the concert was to have featured La Arrolladora Banda el Limon, Banda MS, K-Paz de la Sierra and Julion Alvarez, among others.
The radio station officials at KCMT La Caliente (102.1 FM) haven’t spoken to any fans directly before deciding to put a hold on ticket sales for “Tusa 2010,” but the radio station spokesman did say that they’re uncertain if the law would keep fans away because of fear of getting stopped to check their papers when buying a beer.
The “Tusa 2010” story is very interesting because it seems to be a rare situation where immigration law has a direct impact on concert fans and concert culture.
And besides artists having trouble getting visas to perform in foreign countries so they can tour, I can’t think of a recent immigration-related event that was so directly related to the fans instead of the artists.
Earlier this month the Arizona Hip Hop community came together to protest and show support in the wake of the new law, and we’ll certainly keep an eye on this Arizona Immigration Law story as it develops. If you have any info or a personal perspective to add please let us know in the comments below.
In Other Live Music News…
Keeping an eye on the Live Nation-Ticketmaster merger, yesterday AP reported that Live Nation had significant Q1 losses and is considering “strategic options” for its controversial ticket resale site, TicketsNow.
The AP report also notes that concert attendance fell to 6.8 million from 7.1 million a year ago, while the total spending per concertgoer grew 2 percent to $59.71 from $58.57.
And that “special charges” included a $13.4 million charge related to artist advances, a $4.5 million loss on the mandated sale of ticket-seller Paciolan to Philadelphia sports venue operator Comcast-Spectacor and a $19.3 million charge for stock options and restricted stock controlled by executive chair Irving Azoff.
So was the merger a good move for Live Nation?
You would think that by looking at those numbers that the merger wasn’t a good move, but when you consider the bigger revenue picture, Live Nation-Ticketmaster still projects to earn $40MM this year compared to last year.
I hope you enjoyed this quick concert news update…
Got thoughts on the new Arizona immigration law’s impact on concerts and the Live Nation-Ticketmaster merger? Want to share a recent Live Nation concert experience? Tell us all about it in the comments below.
Photo courtesy of Associated Press
Pingback: Ticketmaster Launches New Ticketology Blog — Live Fix Blog()