Live Nation (officially) buys House of Blues

I’ll admit — my eyes gloss over just a bit whenever I have to think about the business side of the music industry. I think about business enough as it is and I hate to have it creep into the part of me that finds enjoyment in music.

I’ve yet to review my copy of the documentary, Before the Music Dies, but I believe this is in the center of the point they’re trying to drive home. I’ll confirm once I’m actually a little more educated on the subject, but one of their takeaways is — “the music industry isn’t really about music, it’s about commerce” – ?uestlove.

It’s sad to see the commerce side of the music biz creep its way into the concert / live show side, but hey, why not monopolize as much as you can while you’re able to get away it…

Live Nation announced today that it has completed its previously announced acquisition of House of Blues. With this acquisition, Live Nation now owns, operates and/or has booking rights for more than 170 venues, including the addition of ten “House of Blues”-branded small- sized music venues in the major markets of Los Angeles, Anaheim, San Diego, Las Vegas, New Orleans, Chicago, Cleveland, Orlando, Myrtle Beach and Atlantic City; The Commodore Ballroom, a small-sized music venue in Vancouver; and eight amphitheaters in Seattle, Los Angeles, San Diego, Denver, Dallas, Atlanta, Cleveland and Toronto.

What do you folks think about this? Is this good for us? Bad for us? Drop some knowledge in the comments…

Live Nation Completes Acquisition of House of Blues [Yahoo]

About the author

Justin Ward is the Editor at Live Music Blog and has been with the site from the very beginning. He currently lives in San Francisco and regularly tweets other stuff over @justinpward.

He also plays in NVO and sometimes calls himself dudha.us ("dude house"). Follow his projects over at JustinWard.org.