AllThingsD » Eagles

Take That, Mark Cuban! Bengals Receiver Chad Ochocinco Pays $520 a Word for NFL Twitter Fine

Peter Kafka — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 12:22:17 +0000

When the NFL banned in-game Twittering by its players last year, I’m pretty sure they had Chad Ochocinco in mind. And while it took nearly a year, the Cincinnati Bengals receiver finally got the league to flex its anti-social-media muscles, via a $25,000 fine for two tweets sent out last Saturday.

Ochocinco (old-timers may remember when he went by the name Chad Johnson) sent this one out about an hour before a preseason game against the Philadelphia Eagles:

Followed by this one, tapped out during the game itself:

By my count (contractions are tricky), those two missives contain a total of 48 words, which puts Ochocinco’s tab at $520 a word. Which means he trumps Mark Cuban’s $510 per-word Twitter fine he got from the NBA a year ago.

And Ochocinco is sorry. Sort of. Because tweeting is great, but exotic luxury cars are expensive:

Don Henley Does Not Have a Peaceful Easy Feeling About YouTube

Peter Kafka — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 18:46:44 +0000

Musician Don Henley has won a legal battle against Chuck DeVore, a California politician who used a couple of Eagles songs in campaign videos last fall without Henley’s permission.

So that should make Henley happy, right?

Sorta. Henley is still worked up about YouTube, which hosted the videos during DeVore’s race for California’s U.S. Senate seat. The Google (GOOG) site took the clips down after it received a copyright claim, but that isn’t enough to appease Henley, who describes the site as a “fence.”

“YouTube is one of the biggest violators of copyright laws in the world,” Henley told Ben Sheffner, an attorney at GE’s (GE) NBC Universal, who also runs his own “Copyrights & Campaigns” blog. “A tremendous amount of the content on YouTube is a copyright violation….I’m not a fan of YouTube at all for their part in aiding and abetting copyright violations.”

That used to be a commonplace view of YouTube, but over time the site has reached a detente with many copyright owners: It will work with them to keep their stuff off the site, if that’s what they want. But it would very much like for them to keep their stuff on its site and figure out a way to sell ads against it.

Not good enough, says Henley. More from his chat with Sheffner:

Henley lamented what he views as the lack of response in Washington to rampant infringement on the Internet: “The politicians are not supporting creators on these issues, and it’s extremely disappointing.” He blamed what he views as the lack of action on the political power of Internet companies. “The people who create and run these sites like YouTube have a lot of clout,” he said.

“The Internet is slowly but surely killing the whole concept of copyright,” complained Henley. “I don’t like where it’s going….The Internet is a wonderful thing but it also has a very dark side.”

It’s unclear what Henley wants Washington to do, but he may well have to be content grinding his teeth.

If YouTube’s recent legal victory against Viacom (VIA) holds up, the site–and many others–will be legally required to do much less to appease copyright owners than it has been doing to date. That doesn’t mean it will do as little as possible, of course–it’s good business for YouTube to make big media companies happy. But it gives the site a lot more leeway.

So perhaps Henley will have to take some advice from bandmate Joe Walsh (or is he a former bandmate? I don’t track the Eagles lineup that closely) and appreciate the benefits of success:

Welcome to the Hotel California: Here's What's Really Happening in the Foursquare Pig Pile

Kara Swisher — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 08:37:37 +0000

No, Facebook is not in serious talks to buy Foursquare. Yet.

No, Microsoft is not poised to snap up the social location start-up, beyond a cursory should-we-look query to itself. Yet.

No, there is no longer a crazy bidding war going on among major venture players in Silicon Valley, all waiting with bated breath for Foursquare founder and CEO Dennis Crowley to make a decision about which of them he will deign to take a big pile of money from.

In fact, Andreessen Horowitz partner Ben Horowitz was entirely correct when he told BoomTown in an interview earlier this week that his firm was dropping out of the race to fund the company:

“This is playing out too much in public and clearly someone has an interesting agenda here, so this is not something we want to participate in.”

Interesting indeed, although cloddish is probably a better word for what the simple process of deciding on funding versus selling has turned into.

New York-based Foursquare, which hit one million users yesterday and is unprofitable, lets its users “check in” from a variety of locations.

It’s an innovative and entertaining concept and a lot of fun, unless you are among those trying to do a deal with Foursquare.

From VCs to Facebook to Yahoo (YHOO)–the only serious bid to acquire Foursquare so far–sources close to every single player mentioned in the hubbub around the start-up expressed stupefaction about the confusion Crowley’s endless Hamlet act has resulted in.

And, in no small measure, annoyance too.

“It’s hard to make rivals all agree on one thing,” said one person close to the situation. “But this just became a pig pile.”

Indeed, that was the impetus for Horowitz speaking on the record about the experience of dealing with Foursquare, a move that was unprecedented.

“If the process was changed, we still like the company,” said Horowitz. “But since it has been long and undefined, it is prone to manipulation.”

While some have suggested that this was just sour grapes on the part of Andreessen Horowitz because Foursquare decided to pass on a lower funding offer it made, others involved–including rival VCs–applauded the move.

“Foursquare is being just as vague and unclear to us, which I think means they don’t know what they want,” said one VC, who has been considering funding it. “No one minds losing out to someone else, as much as feeling like you’re being played.”

The game got another boost today by rumors that Facebook is intently interested in buying Foursquare and delayed its announcement of location features at its f8 conference Wednesday because the social networking site did not want to scotch the impending deal.

Actually, no.

What is true is that Crowley has been to visit Facebook execs, including CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and there were only cursory discussions about a range of possible ways to work together, including a plan to federate third-party location services at the social networking giant.

Also, why not meet?

“It’s was a free look,” said one person with knowledge of the chitchat, the kind that happen all the time between Facebook and companies. “You always say yes when people want to talk, because you can learn a lot.”

As to a purchase: Unlikely at the price of $100 million-plus that Yahoo offered, if ever.

“Yahoo needs a solution in the mobile location and local space, because they have nothing,” said another source of the build-or-buy decision. “Facebook has all the tools it needs, as well as 500 million users used to updating their statuses, so what Foursquare is doing is not hard to replicate.”

As for Microsoft (MSFT), sources said, it, as well as companies like Nokia (NOK), simply have had their interest piqued by all the noise surrounding Foursquare.

That is also typical around hot start-ups, and perhaps more so with Microsoft, since it recently signed a deal with Foursquare to integrate its customer data with the Bing search service’s map apps.

So what’s left? Well, Silicon Valley VCs, of course, who are always interested in a deal.

Despite negligible revenue, Foursquare raised $1.35 million last August, valuing it at $6 million.

Foursquare’s current VCs include O’Reilly AlphaTech Ventures and Union Square Ventures, as well as a spate of well-known angel investors.

New VC valuations have hovered from $50 million to $80 million.

But both Accel Partners and Redpoint Ventures, sources said, do not have active talks going on with Foursquare.

One wild card: Free-spending Russian moneybags Digital Sky Technologies, which has already sunk copious funds into Facebook and games powerhouse Zynga.

For certain, after Andreessen Horowitz pulled out, the last one standing seems to be Gideon Yu of Khosla Ventures.

And while the eager firm has made an offer, sources said, it has yet to hear back from Foursquare, which is taking its sweet time mulling things over, which can’t make Yu happy either.

In other words, mangling the old Eagles song, “Hotel California”: You can check in any time you like, but you can never leave.

So while Crowley searches for the most lucrative exit, let’s enjoy the Eagles classic in this video:

EAGLES – HOTEL CALIFORNIA
Uploaded by hushhush112. – Music videos, artist interviews, concerts and more.

Ticketmaster-Live Nation Merger Gets Conditional Thumbs Up From DOJ (Plus D7 Video With TKTM CEO Azoff)

Kara Swisher — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 00:46:31 +0000

While many thought it would not sail through regulatory scrutiny easily, and it has taken a year, the merger of two entertainment industry giants–Ticketmaster and Live Nation–can go forward as long as a certain set of conditions is met, the Department of Justice said.

And while DOJ’s antitrust head, Christine Varney, told reporters today that she warned the two companies that the federal government was prepared to litigate if necessary, it–well–did not.

“We concluded the transaction as originally proposed was anti-competitive,” said Varney, a statement that was pretty much negated by her decision not to block the merger, given that the conditions she set were not a stretch for the parties to meet.

Still, Varney noted: “The proposed settlement allows for strong competitors to Ticketmaster, allowing concert venues to have more and better choices for their ticketing needs, and provides for anti-retaliation provisions, which will keep the merged company in check.”

We shall see about that–many are expecting even higher ticket prices and “fees.”

The companies also reached an agreement with 17 State Attorneys General as part of the U.S. consent decree, as well as with the Canadian Commissioner of Competition.

Not surprisingly, shares of both West Hollywood-based Ticketmaster (TKTM) and Live Nation (LYV) of Beverly Hills, Calif., were up about 15 percent today, even though the deal still has to undergo public comment and be approved by a judge.

But after today, Ticketmaster investors will get Live Nation stock, valued at $15.49, and with its ticker retired, Ticketmaster shares will no longer trade.

Now the combined company will be able to do everything from selling tickets to booking artists to selling their T-shirts and more.

And all Live Nation and Ticketmaster have to do to operate like this is sell off a college sports ticketing unit to Comcast (CMCSA) and license ticketing software to Live Nation’s nearest competitor, the Anschutz Entertainment Group.

Also, for a decade, the merged company cannot play dirty, blackballing those who decide they don’t want to use its services.

With 75 big venues across the U.S. under the purview of Live Nation, that’s a lot of places the world’s largest concert promoter could apply pressure.

And because Ticketmaster is the dominant player in ticketing for sports and entertainment events, as well as the manager of a spate of major acts that play at those Live Nation venues, it’s clear you have a very powerful entity.

It will all be led, in part, by Ticketmaster CEO Irving Azoff, who can be seen below in an interview with BoomTown at the seventh D: All Things Digital conference last May.

One of the most influential behind-the-scenes movers and shakers in the music industry for a long time now, Azoff talked about with me about the merger and digital forces buffeting the entertainment business.

Azoff will be the executive chairman of the merged company, which will be called Live Nation Entertainment, as well as CEO of Front Line artist management. Longtime Hollywood and Internet mogul Barry Diller is set to be chairman, and Michael Rapino will be CEO and president.

Here’s the video of the D7 interview, including the very funny intro that music legend Joe Walsh of the Eagles did for Azoff (and below it, a video of a terrific version of “Life’s Been Good,” sung by Walsh, which it certainly is today for Ticketmaster-Live Nation):

[ See post to watch video ]

And here’s the press release from Live Nation and Ticketmaster:

LOS ANGELES and WEST HOLLYWOOD, Calif., Jan 25, 2010–Live Nation, Inc. and Ticketmaster Entertainment, Inc. today announced that they have reached agreements with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and with the Canadian Commissioner of Competition, clearing the way for the merger of the companies. Upon closing, the company will be renamed Live Nation Entertainment, Inc. to reflect the combination of Live Nation’s concert promotions expertise with Ticketmaster’s world-class ticketing solutions and artist relationships.

Under the terms of the proposed final judgment filed today in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, the companies have agreed to divest Ticketmaster’s self-ticketing subsidiary, Paciolan, to Comcast-Spectacor and to license the Ticketmaster Host technology to Anschutz Entertainment Group, Inc., as well as to other terms that protect competitive conditions in ticketing and promotions. Seventeen State Attorneys General also participated in the matter and have joined in the U.S. consent decree. The parties’ consent agreement with the Canadian Commissioner of Competition is on substantially equivalent terms.

As previously announced, in connection with the merger, each issued and outstanding share of Ticketmaster common stock will be cancelled and converted into the right to receive a number of shares of Live Nation common stock such that Ticketmaster stockholders will receive approximately 50.01% of the voting power of the combined company. Subject to final confirmation, the companies expect each share of Ticketmaster common stock to be cancelled and converted into the right to receive 1.474 shares of Live Nation common stock in connection with the merger and for Live Nation to issue approximately 84,613,661 shares of Live Nation common stock to Ticketmaster stockholders in the aggregate.

The combined company will be led by Michael Rapino as CEO and President of Live Nation Entertainment and Irving Azoff as Executive Chairman of Live Nation Entertainment and CEO of Front Line. Barry Diller will serve as Chairman of the Board of Live Nation Entertainment. The Board will consist of 14 directors, seven from each company.

Ticketmaster CEO Irving Azoff: The Full D7 Session

Beth Callaghan — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 15:42:46 +0000

Today, the full sessions of the seventh D: All Things Digital conference get rocking–literally–by posting Kara’s onstage interview with music powerhouse and Ticketmaster (TKTM) CEO Irving Azoff.

Here’s the video of the D7 interview (including the very funny intro that music legend Joe Walsh did for Azoff) :

[ See post to watch video ]

Ticketmaster CEO Irving Azoff: The Full D7 Session

Kara Swisher — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 15:23:29 +0000

Today, the full sessions of the seventh D: All Things Digital conference get rocking–literally–by posting my onstage interview with music powerhouse and Ticketmaster (TKTM) CEO Irving Azoff.

One of the most important behind-the-scenes movers and shakers in the industry, Azoff is now running the world’s biggest entertainment ticketing company while still heading one of the largest music management companies. He is also personal manager for the Eagles and many others.

He and I talked about all this and more, focusing on the digital forces buffeting the music business.

Here’s the video of the D7 interview (including the very funny intro that music legend Joe Walsh did for Azoff) :

[ See post to watch video ]

Ticketmaster CEO Irving Azoff: How to Make Money While Music Becomes "Demonetized"

Peter Kafka — Wed, 27 May 2009 16:31:16 +0000

As a longtime music executive and talent manager, Irving Azoff has had to find a way to work with everyone from inebriated rock stars to David Geffen. But he’s never had to placate Washington, D.C., before. But that’s what Azoff needs to do in order to pull off the deal of a lifetime: A merger between his Ticketmaster (TKTM) Entertainment, which dominates the ticketing business, and Live Nation, (LYV), which dominates the live concert business.

When Azoff isn’t busy trying to convince people that the merger doesn’t violate antitrust regulations, or running his ticketing company, he manages the careers of everyone from the Eagles to Christina Aguilera. Note the one thing in the music business he doesn’t spend time on: selling recorded music.

Session Highlights

[ See post to watch video ]

Live Blog

Introduction: Legendary Eagles survivor Joe Walsh, looking very much worse for wear, shows up via video to talk about his longtime manager. “Irving is the only manager that I ever knew that said to David Geffen ‘pffft,’ and he’s still here.” Also: “He’s a friend of mine….All the guys in the Eagles love him. He has a beautiful house that we bought him.”
Irving notes that Joe is now sober.
Irving rattles off his management empire: 16 management companies, handling everyone from Miley Cyrus to Willie Nelson. Country, classic rock “where the tour money is.”
Kara: Where’s the music business going? Irving: Obviously, with the “demonetization of recorded music,” everyone got into a woe-is-me attitude, but I’m enthusiastic. “Narrowcasting” of the industry has created new stars, and live business is good.

Irving: Music labels have always been slow to react to technology, and a lot of people in this room profited from that. Basically the record industry sat around and tried to protect an old model.
Kara: Could the business have reacted differently? Irving: Yeah, suing your customer is a bad idea.
Kara: Will there be record companies in the future? Irving: Yes. They have 100 years of content. They’ll be more like publishing companies, where they are a repository of rights.
Kara: How do you feel the technology business has treated the music business? [Apologies for gap, technical issues]. Eagles have generated about $400,000 in Apple (AAPL) iTunes royalties. Which is about what they get for a couple live shows.
Irving: Overall, the state of music industry is promising. Was fallow for a bit, but there’s a whole new generation of singers, songwriters, performers. “You never know where it comes from.” In terms of the business, there will be more companies than the four big labels that dominate today. “It will be a great time for entrepreneurs….It’s not over, but it’s warping into 2.0, 3.0.”
Kara: What does a music executive have to do to survive? Irving: You have to take chances. They can’t complain about the iTunes deal. They have to embrace new technology, and I think they are, and it’s easier to get deals done now.
Kara: What about these little digital companies like Playlist and iLike, which Ticketmaster owns a piece of? They can survive, and they’re excellent marketing opportunities. But they’ll have to find other ways of making money. Can they? “I don’t know.” Advertising? “I don’t know.”

Onto the merger. Irving lays out the case. Everything revolves around live music, and they’re the biggest player in live music. It’s really the promotion piece, and the marketing piece, added to Ticketmaster. Without that, Ticketmaster wouldn’t survive. “Any of you guys can write a program that does what Ticketmaster does….I’ve been there a couple of months and I have gripes myself.”
People’s gripe with Ticketmaster isn’t with what we do, it’s demand issues: People want tickets to attend sold-out shows, so we have unhappy customers. Plus we’ve been the “collection agency” for a whole bunch of fees. “But the decision is ultimately made by the act.”
What about criticism to the merger from the likes of Bruce Springsteen? “Everything we do revolves around what’s good for the artist and what’s good for the fan. That’s our new model.”
Not really an answer, Kara points out. Irving: “I would say that Bruce is uninformed about the potential of what this could be.” [Maybe someone could tell Jon Landau.] For instance, we could be bundling new songs along with tickets. “The business traditionally resists change,” so complaints about the merger are nothing news. And there’s plenty of competition: Phil Anschutz competes with us and he’s worth more than the combined market cap of both of these companies. Warner Music Group’s (WMG) Edgar Bronfman Jr. says he’s in the ticketing business, etc.
Discussion of TicketsNow, a StubHub-like “secondary market”/scalping business owned by Ticketmaster. Irving has said that in the past that he wouldn’t have bought it. Would he sell it now? Maybe.
What are the prospects for the merger? “Very optimistic” that it will get done between now and end of the year.
Back to griping about prices and availability: “People in the music industry, we’ve had a horrible record of shooting ourselves in the head.” We haven’t done enough dynamic pricing for tickets, and we should, and that will help make people happy. But these issues are fundamentally the artists’ responsibility. They decide what tickets we sell, and at what price.

Where is the music business going, overall? Who’s your favorite? “It’s like asking what’s your favorite kid.” Internet makes things very exciting, distribution is opening up. What about the industry suing customers? I think that’s a “very small issue.” We do need to protect intellectual property, and the people who make it.
Q&A: Esther Dyson wants to know what Ticketmaster/Live Nation will do with all the data they collect about customers, etc. “Any artist that calls up and says I’d like the email list of the people who came to my show, we’ll make that available.” But with regard to pricing, etc., artists and their management are not being sophisticated about how they use data. And we have to keep the press from chastising artists that use dynamic pricing.”
Q: Not clear what the question is. But seems to be about using an auction model from the get-go. “Auctions are falling into real disfavor at the moment….We’re finding that people don’t want to spend the time to participate in them.” They just want to know that this VIP package costs this much.
Q: What do you think about subscription services? “I’ve always thought subscription was an incredible model.” But tricky to pull off with labels, publishers, unions, mobile guys all trying to figure out how to split the money.
Q: Do you have specific advice for classical music artists? The great thing about the Internet is that you no longer have to be popular with everybody to have a career. Classical should flourish in this era. Build a base, get in front of people, have people like you live. “That’s been true in 1966, and that will be true as long as there is music.”
Do your artists like Twitter? Some do. “Very useful” but other artists “refuse to get a mobile phone.”

A note about our coverage: This liveblog is not an official transcript of the conversation that occurred onstage. Rather, it is a compilation of quotes, paraphrased statements and ad-lib observations written and posted to the Web as quickly as we were able. It was not intended as a transcript and should not be interpreted as one.

Joe Walsh Introduces Irving Azoff At D7

Adam Tow — Wed, 27 May 2009 16:30:59 +0000

Former Eagles band member, Joe Walsh, introduces Ticketmaster Entertainment CEO Irving Azoff to the stage at the D7 Conference.

[ See post to watch video ]

EA's Take-Two Two-Step

John Paczkowski — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 18:00:04 +0000

[ See post to watch video ]

EA's Take-Two Two-Step

John Paczkowski — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 18:00:04 +0000

[ See post to watch video ]