John Malone, Ticket Master?

-YOSH John Malone is is probably the most under rated when it comes to the power he holds in the media business. He has made other powerful media bigs like Rupert Murdoch run for cover. Now he is said to be interested in Barry Diller's TicketMaster.com. And why wouldn't he be? The site reportedly sold over $7 billion in tickets last year. However that number may drop when Live Nation, the biggest concert promoter, drops Ticketmaster.com in favor of it's own ticket sales system. Liberty CEO Gregory Maffei says his company has been unable to swing a deal for Home Shopping Network—which Liberty would like to merge with its QVC discount shopping business—because IAC has set the price too high. At the 35th annual UBS Global Media & Communications Conference in New York on Dec. 3, Maffei mused that Liberty may now focus on Ticketmaster, the dominant name in ticket sales. Maffei said Ticketmaster "has a great business" that would mesh well with Liberty's entertainment assets, which will expand substantially in the coming weeks if Malone's deal to buy the DirecTV (DTV) satellite service wins federal regulatory approval as expected. John Malone Eyes Ticketmaster [BW]

And now this morning's worth mentioning media business news

-YOSH It looks like The New York Post's Page Six has finally taken on it's natural form [Pagesix.com] Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino is probably the most feared man in the music industry. Record label bosses better watch there artist [Fortune] Rupert Murdoch is planning to make WSJ.com a free website. But what exactly are his plans for that other barely mentioned Dow Jones news property, Marketwatch.com? [Fortune] What's the real word on Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook.com. Did that kid really get rich on a stolen Idea? [NYT] For Blog lord Nick Denton, losing three of his editors at his flagship blog gawker.com, is just the same old same old. [NYT] Lucky for Paramount's Brad Grey, David Geffen beefing with old man Sumner may have saved his ass from being replaced with perhaps Stacey Snider at the top of Paramount [NYP]

Madonna drops the bunny for Live Nation

Edgar Bronfman and Lyor Cohen are two men we admire. But we have to say that we think they made a huge mistake when they let Live Nation take one of their biggest artists away. Word is Bronfman couldn't go up against what Live Nation was offering Madonna and so he backed down and watched his top artist walk out the door. What does this say about the once mighty music industry? Clearly the music industry has reached a point where artists have more control over what, where and when. Live Nation, a concert promoter has further shifted the game and all the major record companies need to pay attention. Madonna won't be the first or last artist to jump from a traditional record label with the potential of making 10x more. So where does this leave Edgar Bronfman and his music czar Lyor Cohen, the once feared Def Jam honcho? Warner Music Group's stock has already been on a slide, and Investors are getting irritated. Will Warner Music look to restructure and kill the thick layers of top management or will they look to slash more jobs. First of all the first problem with companies like Warner Music Group is that it’s a public company. So what happens is that, top management is more concerned about pleasing Wall Street than consumers. Due to this lack of focus on the consumer –aka- the record buying public, major labels have been putting out what we call bottom line fillers, artists with little or no talent who went into the studio and made some corny shit bag song about a new dance. OK people may love the dance because it’s crazy, but are they going out to buy the record? No. Why? Because they only like the dance not the actual song. The music industry is slowly committing suicide and continues to blame illegal downloads for its troubles. Sure people are downloading music illegally, and the reality is, the music industry can't stop it. Focus on introducing new well developed artists, and come up with some added value content on CD's other than the norm, and try to rebuild. Edgar Bronfman, there will never be another Madonna, and you let her walk. Too bad for you. Bet you Roger Ames wouldn’t have let that happen.