Sociocultural Live Nation faces socio-cultural elements within its company because of the issues that arise with health and safety at live events. To combat problems that may affect Live Nation, the company has adapted IOSH, The Institution of Occupational Safety and Health. In 2013, IOSH was created for live music events in order to ensure better protection for fans and workers (“Health and Safety”). The program consists of a four day course in which venue and technical managers learn about the risks of working live events and how best to tackle those risks associated with large-scale crowds (“Health and Safety”).
The program was created by Bob Bowman of FLX Consulting Ltd. and Peter Gates, health and safety advisor of LNE Group (“Health and Safety”). Live Nation Entertainment then adapted the course into their training programs for employees and contractors. IOSH Managing Safely teaches in-depth risk management procedures that cover various key aspects of live events including: Crowd: going over the genre of music being performed and the audience that is expected, “show stop” procedures, and working with local authorities when necessary.
Venue and Location: type of venue (outdoor, city centre, indoor), access points to and from the venue, traffic build-up protocol for the surrounding area, noise pollution laws, and any associated environmental issues. Working from Height: rigging, lighting, staging temporary demountable structures (TDSs), screens Special Effects: pyrotechnics, lasers, smoke effects, etc. Contractor Management: sound and lighting technicians, caterers, security (“Health and Safety”) According to Caroline Holden, IOSH Executive Director of Commercial, ‘Live Nation has a great track record at events, and this course is another step towards making sure our music and entertainment industry is the safest in the world” (“Health and Safety”).
127 our experts are availableright now
The course promises to supply greater productivity, improve organization, and to increase active staff involvement to improve the workplace (IOSH). This course provides extra measures for employees and contractors to learn about how to act and react in the safest ways possible for everyone involved. By having this course in Live Nation Entertainment’s training program for employees and contractors, the company is aware of their sociocultural needs. PESTEL – Environmental The live music scene impacts the environment through fan and artist transportation, use of paper products, and even what kind of food is served at live entertainment events.
According to Jordan Grobe of Planet Forward, “Fans traveled approximately 240 million miles to get to shows, emitting 58,000 metric tons of CO2. Roughly 130 million paper goods were used (which is about 160,000 trees), and approximately 60 million plastic water bottles were sold, the equivalent of 48,000 barrels of oil. Between 80 and 90 percent of carbon emissions related to concerts come from fan transportation”. Grobe also made note of the fact that there are venues that create promotions for fans that carpool, ride their bikes, and for those that use public transportation.
Live Nation could help reduce CO2 emissions by implementing these promotional tactics into their venues, such as, House of Blues. In the summer of 2018, Live Nation set goals for the company to achieve zero waste in twenty of its amphitheater venues by 2020 (Sloan). Along with setting this goal, Live Nation has hired venue sustainability coordinators at fourteen of their venues (Sloan). Previously, Live Nation conducted a study with GreenBlue that performed a “waste sort and waste characterization study at Jiffy Lube Live” (Sloan).
Though Live Nation Entertainment is considered to be a promoter, it owns House of Blues music venues. At these venues, Live Nation has started to cut back on the number of paper products used. Specifically, the company has decided to ban plastic straws from their amphitheaters, and if guests need them, the concessions workers will provide paper straws (Sloan). By choosing to reduce waste with plastic products, House of Blues Executive Vice President, Felix Musseden said, “We have a responsibility to protect the environment.
We work hard to be good corporate citizens” (Sloan). To further reduce waste, Live Nation has also partnered with UPS to ship out tickets, merchandise, and equipment (Grobe). By doing this, Live Nation is “saving more than 300,000 sheets of paper/year and offsetting 3,800 metric tons of CO2 emissions from over 425,000 gallons of gasoline” (Grobe). Live Nation has done their part in being environmentally responsible by reducing waste. Furthermore, Live Nation has adapted sustainability efforts into their business by partnering with Impossible Burger in many of its amphitheaters (“Empowered by LN”).
Impossible Burger is a burger vendor, but instead of using meat, everything is plant-based. Impossible Burger’s food smells and tastes just like real beef, but it is in fact, just plants (Impossible Burger). By partnering with Impossible Burger, Live Nation reduces the environmental impact of eating meat. According to PETA, consuming animal products impacts the earth because of the need for making room to farm, so there is a reduction of trees. Waste from the animals on the farm has the potential to pollute local water sources if not treated properly (PETA).
Essentially, if the amount of meat consumed in the country is reduced, there would be more water that can be used for crops, fossil fuels will be significantly reduced, the number of trees cut down to make room for farming would be reduced, and the food grown to take care of farm animals could then be used to feed more of the human population (PETA). On environmental change and sustainability, Live Nation Entertainment says: “We feel like we are the largest live entertainment company in the world and with that comes both a huge responsibility and a huge opportunity to use that platform to not only try to move the needle from an environmental standpoint, and put on concerts that have zero impact on the environment, but also leverage the fact that we have got this incredible fan base. [Hopefully, we can] inspire them to not only participate when they are at the show but then also when they go home,” says August-Perna.
“That would be a dream, if our fans saw what we were doing and decided to adopt that behavior in their personal lives.” However, there are conflicting viewpoints on how possible it is that so much can be accomplished simply by not eating meat. SWOT Analysis – Strengths Live Nation Entertainment operates with a hierarchy and a large difference in salaries. According to The Wall Street Journal, in 2017, Live Nation’s CEO, Michael Rapino earned $70.6 million (Steele). Rapino’s salary makes him one of the highest-compensated executives in the United States, but this is surprising because Live Nation is not large enough to rank in the S&P 500 (Steele). According to the New York Times, an employee that earns a median pay of $24,406 would need to work for 2,893 years to earn the $70.6 million Rapino made in 2017 (Gelles). While it is unclear what the next highest paid executive in Live Nation makes, this clearly demonstrates a hierarchy within the business.
This hierarchy qualifies as a strength for Live Nation because having this separation and gap between the highest ranking officers and the lowest ranking employees allows for everyone to see their place within the big picture of the company. Hierarchy in a company as large as Live Nation Entertainment allows for structure and organization within the company for employees and officers alike. In Live Nation’s 2016 Annual Report, the company lists and address their strengths. Based on this report, Live Nation has a high user satisfaction because of the fans of popular music that use their platform. According to the 2016 Annual Report, Live Nation “connected over 550 million fans to their favorite live event” (Live Nation Entertainment).
By having this many users with a working distribution system, it is evident that user satisfaction is high. Ticketing and distribution is another strength that Live Nation possesses, according to its 2016 Annual Report. Through Live Nation’s merger with Ticketmaster, users are able to access tickets via either company’s website (Live Nation Entertainment). Live Nation and Ticketmaster also both use mobile apps that users can access through their device to purchase tickets or use on the day of a concert (Live Nation Entertainment).
Live Nation has offices in 34 countries worldwide, therefore, distribution is high for the company (Live Nation Entertainment). As of the end of 2016, Live Nation owns, operates, and has an equity interest in 196 venues located across 11 countries (Live Nation Entertainment).
