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Business News Deals Live Business
Live Nation buys LA dance music promoter
By CMU Editorial | Published on Wednesday 27 June 2012
Live Nation has further extended its reach into the good old electronic dance music domain by buying LA-based dance music promoter Hard Events, according to the New York Times.
The new deal follows Live Nation’s acquisition of the UK-based Cream business and festivals, and the appointment of Cream chief James Barton as the live music giant’s President of Electronic Music.
Corporate interest in the growth of EDM have risen quite a bit in recent months, especially in the US where the genre is enjoying new found popularity. As well as Live Nation’s moves into the genre, Robert Sillerman, the entrepreneur behind the former SFX and existing CKX music and media companies, recently announced he’d set aside a billion dollars to buy into the EDM sector.
Though inthemix notes that Gary Richards, the founder of Hard Events, which is probably best known for its Hard Summer festival, recently told the New York Times he was suspicious of such corporates moving into the dance space, noting “you can’t just franchise this like McDonalds”. However, it seems he now reckons a Live Nation alliance will enable the expansion of his events globally.