Public Company Not For Veteran Music Manager: Irving Azoff’s Sudden Flight From Live Nation

As the New Year rang in, the music industry was abuzz with the sudden resignation of Live Nation Entertainment’s executive chairman, Irving Azoff. The former executive chairman is a 65 year-old veteran music manager, and responsible for the Ticketmaster/Live Nation merger of 2010. Azoff has been managing huge acts like the Eagles, Christina Aguilera, Van Halen, and Fleetwood Mac for years. The merger of Ticketmaster Entertainment and Live Nation, Inc., created the world’s largest concert promoter after they conquered the antitrust opposition. According to Rolling Stone Magazine, when the two companies joined forces, their common goals were to have the power and flexibility to cut costs, make more money from the lucrative resale market, and ultimately reduce ticket prices and service fees (Knopper, 2010). So what went wrong, and what made the executive chairman split before the calendar year ended? Many questions and suspicions have surfaced since Azoff’s departure from Live Nation.

Irving Azoff revealed that he felt trapped in the new public company, and had a growing frustration that he couldn’t use his position to lower ticket prices, kill service fees and create a long-planned online market to bundle tickets with T-shirts and downloads (Knopper, 2013). Azoff as quoted by interviewers, “I thought I could push a button and get it done. Couldn’t get it done.” Azoff also let it be known how he was very disappointed with being unable to achieve his goals, he blames the travails of running a public company as well as the conflicting interests between managers and promoters within Live Nation.

Azoff tells an interviewer from Billboardbiz, “It came down very quickly. We had a board meeting on December 10^th and we got it done by last night (December 30^th). Really, all it was about was it was time for me not to work for a public company. That’s all.” (Waddell, 2012) Azoff came out of the negotiations of his contract wealthier then he walked in. The timing of his resignation allowed him to take home over $3.5 million dollars in bonuses and salary payments, and 196,000 Live Nation shares (Knopper, 2013). The veteran music manager holds a two-year non-compete agreement with Live Nation, it allows him to still work on projects involving recorded music, TV, movies, music, and book publishing. What Irving Azoff regrets the most about the multibillion-dollar merger between Ticketmaster Entertainment and Live Nation Inc., is the grueling and daunting experiences he had in Washington. The experiences he had battling the progress of the merger was the worst experience of his life. Azoff is currently running his old management company, Azoffmusic Management, and continues to manage major acts like Christina Aguilera and the Eagles today.