by Richard Kastelein

OP/ED - Techcrunch is reporting that Myspace UK traffic has halved in the past six months and there have been layoffs right and left in their London offices.  Numbers are down from 10 million visits at the start of the year to around 5 million as of the end of June 2010. Late last year Eventim cut a deal with Myspace UK to sell tickets - which, based on the numbers from Techcrunch can't be a good scenario for them. And the fact is, Myspace has been a fertile ground for emerging music and bands for a number of years - with many B-List artists using the platform as their core site. That also spells bad news for new acts - if numbers are down as low as reported.

So where are they all going?

by Adriana Hamacher

OP/ED:"There were so many mess-ups from the beginning," says Costa Vlassis, who queued at the Checkers supermarket in Johannesburg’s Sandton City from 1 a.m. on Friday, but had seen only a handful of tickets sold by 2 p.m. "FIFA keeps on promising that the ticket situation will improve. But the system keeps crashing," he said, speaking to the Los Angeles Times.

FIFA, world soccer's governing body, had announced a day earlier that the last 800 tickets for the final and about 160,000 tickets across all 64 matches remained available on Friday through all sales channels, with a huge demand expected from South African fans. But Friday saw the latest in a string of ticketing problems as the IT systems supporting the sale of tickets crashed, fighting broke out among those queuing, police had to be called to bring things under control and thousands of frustrated fans waited all day but walked away with no tickets.

by Adriana Hamacher

OP/ED: Tiger Management, Lone Pine Capital and Glenview Capital Management were among 30 of the largest equity-oriented hedge funds that bought shares of Live Nation Entertainment (LNE) in the first quarter, according to recent regulatory filings.The company was also one of the top additions to the portfolios of the "Smart Money" 30 in the period, according to data compiled by Thomson Reuters. But, in the past few weeks, the value of LNE stock, which trades under the symbol LYV, has dropped about 30 percent as concerned investors ponder a host of challenges to the live entertainment and ticketing giant.

Investors have been betting that the January merger of Live Nation, the No. 1 concert promoter, and Ticketmaster, the leading ticketing company, is just the ticket to control the fastest growing segment of the music business, with sales of recorded music in decline. But is Live Nation’s enviable position as undisputed market leader - managing the artists, running the live venues, promoting the concerts and selling the tickets - a guarantee that the funds will roll in? Analysts believe that while Live Nation's results should get a jolt in the short run from merger cost savings, seizing the potential benefits of vertical integration will make or break the company in the long run and there are three areas investors should be examining carefully.

by Adriana Hamacher

OP/ED: The news came all at once early this week: two of the summer’s biggest American tours have been put off, with U2 postponing 16 shows, because of Bono’s back injury, and Christina Aguilera rescheduling 20. Add to that Limp Bizkit cancelling the American leg of their summer comeback tour and the Eagles cutting back on their much heralded grand tour. Is it a fluke that these artists all “belong” to Live Nation Entertainment? Promoter Live Nation merged with Ticketmaster Entertainment earlier this year and its first summer season as a combined company is facing scrutiny from every angle. So, it’s hard to resist reading between the lines.