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Live Nation Teams With Blockbuster To Sell Tickets

By 
December 2, 2008 8:00 AM ET

Live Nation has inked a three-year deal with Blockbuster that'll see the video rental chain become the official and exclusive outlet for the Nation's impending ticket service. Under the deal, 500 Blockbusters across the nation will add Live Nation ticketing booths by the start of the 2009 concert season. Besides the option to buy tickets with cash, the Blockbusters will also allow select stores to sell "exclusive blocks of tickets" four hours prior to the tickets' normal online sale time. "This deal with Blockbuster represents the next step in the rollout of our new ticketing system," said Nathan Hubbard, Chief Executive Officer of Live Nation Ticketing. "Our research definitively shows that the vast majority of music fans who prefer to buy their concert tickets at a retail location find Blockbuster to be the most convenient choice."

While a company that specializes in music and concerts merging with a company that rents out DVDs might seem like a strange match on paper, the deal makes sense for both companies: Blockbuster reintroduces an influx of customers back into their stores that might have been seduced by Netflix and iTunes, while Live Nation offers their customers both a cash purchasing option and a place to physically sell tickets, an option Ticketmaster has sorely lacked since Tower Records shuttered its stores two years ago. The deal also calls on Live Nation and Blockbuster to offer exclusive concert products and promotions, and despite the debacle that was Blockbuster Music, maybe they'll work out some distribution deal for all those Madonna and Jay-Z albums Live Nation will be releasing over the course of the next decade.

Related Stories:
• Ticketmaster and Live Nation Battle To Fill Void Left By Labels
• Live Nation Plans Digital Service, Takes On Entire Music Industry
• Ticketmaster Buys Front Line Management, Picks Up Guns N' Roses, Eagles Tours

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