Live Nation’s Latin American Adventure

Live Nation, the behemoth concert promoter, 360 deal signer, and venue owner has expanded their international presence through 2 strategic partnerships in Latin America.

The new partnerships are with CIE in Mexico and T4F (Time for Fun) which is based out of Brazil. CIE is the third largest concert promotion company in the world. They produce over 85% of the concerts in Mexico which has a population near 100 million. CIE’s live entertainment division is called Ocesa, and it is generally accepted that you don’t play in Mexico without going through Ocesa. Live Nation’s partnership with CIE includes a partnership with Ocesa. T4F operates venues in Sao Paolo, Rio de Janeiro, Lima, Buenos Aires, Santiago, and Porto Alegre (Brazil).

Live Nation has worked with both companies in the past, but these strategic partnerships are exclusive and will last for 5 years. It will be interesting to see what happens after 5 years – if Live Nation renews the agreements or if they feel they have learned enough to go at the Latin American market on their own.

This is a great partnership for Live Nation because these companies have a very similar business plan and are the dominant players in their respective markets. It is also a very smart move on Live Nation’s part to place a lot of the local decisions in the hands of these companies. Many USA-based companies have succumb to hubris and have thought that if something works in New York, then surely it will work in Sao Paolo. That is not the case, and these partnerships will provide excellent local knowledge of key Latin American markets.

I would venture to way that we will begin seeing a lot of U.S. artists beginning to tour Latin America. I will keep an eye on the financials of these tours to see how the artists, how Live Nation, and CIE & T4F all make out in terms of revenues.

Stay tuned,
Erik
erikrostad.com