UPDATED: Live Nation Acquires Data Pioneer BigChampagne
(UPDATED) Live Nation has acquired BigChampagne for what unofficial sources place at close to $30 million. The small yet highly influential media-measurement firm is responsible for creating the Ultimate Chart – a rival to the Billboard's charts but factoring in an additional layer of data from social media.
As part of the acquisition, BigChampagne's Ultimate Chart platform will power social discovery, content relevancy and product personalization across Live Nation and Ticketmaster. Additionally, BigChampagne's own products and services will be expanded to incorporate “to live event data, ticketing and merchandising, direct-to-fan and other exclusive data sets.”
"This acquisition strengthens our commitment to be the leader in Artist-to-Fan data,” said Michael Rapino, CEO of Live Nation. “BigChampagne's expertise will accelerate our mission to drive deeper fan engagement throughout Live Nation driven by world class data technology."
As a part of Live Nation's Live Analytics group, BigChampagne will introduce comprehensive business intelligence solutions for entertainment businesses, brands and lifestyle marketers.
"BigChampagne now collects and analyzes more information about entertainment and online audiences than anyone in our sector's history,” said Eric Garland, founder of BigChampagne. “From my first conversation with Live Nation, it was clear to me that this is the right place to dramatically evolve and extend what we've built. We're connecting fans with things they'll love that are happening nearby or soon, or both."
As part of the deal, Garland will become general manager of LiveNation.com, and the company’s co-founder, Joe Fleischer, will be senior vice president of content and product strategy.
This post is by regular Hypebot contributor, musician, and music business professional Hisham Dahud (@HishamDahud)
It’s AMAZING what the big conglomerates will do to find the pulse and gain a better control on ART.
However, it is EXTREMELY SAD that most real creators and performers are not being properly encouraged and rewarded…
Too many artists are struggling while the big players, tech companies and consumers are riding their backs.
That acquisition will certainly help them. More and more companies are trying to find ways to make content tailored specifically to the person who will view it.
I think that new technologies are emerging which make it easier to do this.