#oakview group

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antitrust lawsuit against Live Nation will go to trial (19.02.2026)

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Not this tweet being the way I found out that Tim Leiweke — one of Irving Azoff’s oldest friends and business partners — took the fall for the DOJ investigation into Oakview Group’s tie-in with the Ticketmaster racketeering charges.

Oak View Group CEO Tim Leiweke is stepping down as CEO of the company he co-founded with Irving Azoff after his indictment on a conspiracy charge for allegedly rigging a bid to build and manage Austin’s Moody Center Arena.

Leiweke, 68, reportedly conspired with another bidder to have that company drop out in exchange for subcontracts at the $388 million arena. CNBC reports that the second company was New York-based Legends Hospitality, and that Leiweke reneged on the subcontracts agreement after that company bowed out of the bidding.

As part of the indictment, Leiweke was charged with a violation of Section 1 of the Sherman Act. According to the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division, the maximum penalty for that offense is 10 years in prison and a $1 million criminal fine.

“As outlined in the indictment, the Defendant rigged a bidding process to benefit his own company and deprived a public university and taxpayers of the benefits of competitive bidding,” said Abigail Slater, assistant attorney general of the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division. “The Antitrust Division and its law enforcement partners will continue to hold executives who cheat to avoid competition accountable.”

A spokesperson for Leiweke shared a statement with Variety denying the claims brought against him. “Mr. Leiweke has done nothing wrong and will vigorously defend himself and his well-deserved reputation for fairness and integrity,” the spokesperson said. “The Antitrust Division’s allegations are wrong on the law and the facts, and the case should never have been brought. The law is clear: vertical, complementary business partnerships, like the one contemplated between OVG and Legends, are legal. These allegations blatantly ignore established legal precedent and seek to criminalize common teaming efforts that are proven to enhance competition and benefit the public. The Moody Center is a perfect example, as it has resulted in substantial and sustained benefits to the University of Texas and the City of Austin.”

In the fallout from the indictment, OVG will pay $15 million in penalties while Legends will pay $1.5 million. Under Leiweke’s purview, the company developed several venues including UBS Arena, CFG Bank Arena and Co-op Live. Leiweke said in a message to employees that he would transition from CEO to Vice Chairman and an OVG shareholder. OVG360’s Chris Granger will step in as the new CEO.

Leiweke denied rigging the bid for Moody Center Arena in his note to employees obtained by Billboard. “As some of you may already know, the DOJ’s Antitrust Division made formal allegations against me today alleging that more than eight years ago I made an improper agreement with Legends during the selection process for the construction and management of the Moody Center at the University of Texas,” he wrote.

“It is not true, and I am confident that jurors in Austin will see this case for what it is — wrong on the facts and the law and a misguided attempt to criminalize the lawful, ethical, and procompetitive efforts of complementary businesses joining forces to deliver a compelling proposal.”

LINK TO VARIETY ARTICLE

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is anyone shocked? lol.

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How do they decide whom to data mine? Er, sorry if the question is dumb, it's just I'm confused and concerned

Hi,

It depends on the goal of datamining.

In the case of Demand, everyone who buys a ticket to Harry’s tour is automatically mined. How you search for tickets, the kind of phone you use, the amount of people searching at the same time, which other artists you search for, which tickets your account has purchased before, other products you searched for (a Nike hoodie, for instance) are all taken into account to determine your ticket price, and what else HSHQ wants to sell to you. The fluctuating ticket price is dynamic pricing.

In the case of Eroda, fans on social media were monitored to see what elements they noticed and what they engaged with. Every day, the computer programmers would tweak Eroda accounts to interact with fans, based on fandom gossip and interest.

[seasurfacefullofclouds1]

What is data mining and why did Harry need it?

Hi,

Data mining is tracking strangers’ data on the internet— their clicks, their Google searches, their private content, their phone type, their ticket purchases and other purchases. It can include anything in your search history or your phone/ computer’s information.

Almost every social media app mines your data every time you use it. They study your habits to sell things back to you.

Harry’s manager, Jeff Azoff, is in charge of a data mining project called Demand.

It has four aspects. Read about Demand here, here, here, and here.

[seasurfacefullofclouds1]

Indeed in a demonstration, DEMAND’s Trends section offered side-by-side comparisons of Google search activity for Billie Eilish, Harry Styles, Ariana Grande and Justin Bieber for a six month period (users can set the range from two weeks to five years). The data sets revealed that Eilish had a tremendous spike in search in late-January timed to her Grammys sweep on Jan. 26; Bieber saw a jump earlier in the month coinciding with the release his new single “Yummy;” Styles went through the roof in mid-November when he announced his “Love On 2020 Tour;” while Ariana Grande saw a late-January surge timed to her stunning Grammys performance.

The Trend data also allows for artists and their teams to compare this search activity in more than 200 specific markets. If an artist has to decide between playing two nearby regional markets – say Seattle and Portland, for example—one can easily compare search activity for both markets and make a better informed decision.

DEMAND's pricing tool displays both primary and secondary ticket prices in real time. When secondary ticket prices are higher than the primary, the larger amount is green —which may indicate room in the market to increase ticket prices; and when secondary ticketing is less than the primary, the number displays as red—suggesting primary tickets are priced higher than demand.

The third tab on DEMAND “Announcements” compares the buzz artists generate three days after their tour announcements and quantifies if demand, via Google and YouTube search data, “strongly exceeds,” is “positive” “on target” or “underperforming” when compared against similar acts in various markets. This data too can be used as a barometer for artist teams and venues when booking show.

DEMAND’s final data set entitled “insights” allows artist teams to see which consumer brands index the most with their fans in a number of categories that includes restaurants, fashion, video games, automotive, travel, television and sports. In a demonstration, Chance the Rapper’s fans, for example, would appear to have a predilection for Grand Theft Auto V, Popeyes, Ford Mustangs, the 49ers, Nike, American Airlines and “Saturday Night Live.”

In addition to partnering Oak View Group (Pollstar’s parent company), DEMAND was demoed before a wide swath of the live industry including working with Full Stop Management (part of The Azoff Company, helmed by Irving Azoff, co-founder of Oak View Group) on tour announcement analyses that included Harry Styles, Maroon 5 and Bon Jovi.

— Source, Pollstar (5 February 2020)

[seasurfacefullofclouds1]

a very creepy but i feel like interesting article about ticket pricing, monitoring and brand partnerships using jeff and harry as an example thembj(.)org/2020/04/demand-the-new-platform-for-the-live-music-industry/

Thanks for the article!

Summary:

1. DEMAND is an online project between the Oak View Group and Google. It is managed by Jeff Azoff. It tracks Google searches in relation to interest in artists, for tour tickets, for instance.

2. The Oakview Group and Pollstar are affiliated and partly owned by the Azoffs.

3. DEMAND was put into action to track real-time Google searches when Harry Styles released tour tickets in 2019.

4. This project allowed access to searches for hs tickets as well as other Google searches made by the same consumers.

5. The project then allowed adjustment of prices by dynamic pricing. In other words, dynamic pricing is a direct outgrowth of this search tracking.

6. The analytics showed that people interested in Harry Styles tickets also had an increased interest in Nike— thereby leading to possibilities for co-promotion.

7. 19,000 artists have been added to this project.

8. DEMAND uses your search data to increase profitability to the artist. An agreement with Google allows the program to track your search results not related to the artist.

Demand is an online data-analytics platform that uses big data to provide live statistics and insight into the live music and touring industry.[1] The project grew out of a partnership between Oak View Group and Google in early 2019 and was launched this February at Pollstar Live! 2020 Conference.[2] By providing data from Google, YouTube, and Google Play searches, as well as other third parties such as Pollstar[3], businesses can make more informed decisions in a timely fashion.

Read the article here.

DEMAND: The New Platform for the Live Music Industry – Music Business Journal

DEMAND: The New Platform for the Live Music Industry – Music Business Journal