KORN To Test New Business Model On Upcoming Tour

January 11, 2006

In a first of its kind for the music industry, Grammy-winning rock band KORN announced today that it is teaming up with Live Nation, the world's leading live entertainment company, in a unique, exclusive joint venture. The innovative set of deals expands on the unprecedented partnership KORN created with EMI Music in September.

Under the agreements, Live Nation, EMI and KORN will partner in and share in the results of the band's overall career — including their recording, publishing, touring, merchandising, sponsorship, and other activities. All parties are incentivized financially and creatively to work with KORN's management company, Beverly Hills-based The Firm, to take a long-term approach to building the KORN brand. Each will use its diverse and significant expertise and resources toward the common goal of bolstering KORN's worldwide presence and value.

"This is about shifting power back to artists by finding strategic partners who are the best in their respective businesses and incentivizing them to work in unison to attain common goals consistent with the band's goals," said Jeff Kwatinetz, CEO of the The Firm. "We are thrilled to be in business with Live Nation and especially with its forward-thinking new CEO Michael Rapino. Not only is Live Nation a superb concert promoter, it is a stellar marketing, promotion and production company. This deal allows them to focus not just on selling concert tickets, but on fully investing in the KORN brand. We believe this venture will pave a new way of doing business for musical artists in the future."

"Creating a fan-focused industry will require new approaches and unconventional deals," said Michael Rapino, CEO of Live Nation. "In this new era, we're bringing our branding, concert industry expertise and resources and collaborating with the best partners for one clear objective — to foster long-term artist development. KORN's years of success in touring make them a natural partner for this kind of initiative."

KORN's Jonathan Davis said: "Our partnership with EMI really opened our eyes that there are other ways to succeed in the music business that don't involve always fighting with our record company. They want what we want and we couldn't be happier with Virgin, EMI and David Munns. We expect that adding Live Nation to our team will also have a real impact on our careers."

"EMI was first to recognize the logic and potential of going beyond the traditional record label/artist relationship and creating partnerships that allowed us to be part of an artists' overall career," said David Munns, chairman and CEO, EMI Music North America. "We are delighted that Live Nation is also breaking the mold and joining with us. Live Nation's interests will be completely aligned with ours, and because KORN is one of the most electrifying live acts performing today, having Live Nation's concert expertise in the mix makes complete sense."

Find more on

Prev More News Next

Comments Disclaimer And Information

BLABBERMOUTH.NET uses the Facebook Comments plugin to let people comment on content on the site using their Facebook account. The comments reside on Facebook servers and are not stored on BLABBERMOUTH.NET. To comment on a BLABBERMOUTH.NET story or review, you must be logged in to an active personal account on Facebook. Once you're logged in, you will be able to comment. User comments or postings do not reflect the viewpoint of BLABBERMOUTH.NET and BLABBERMOUTH.NET does not endorse, or guarantee the accuracy of, any user comment. To report spam or any abusive, obscene, defamatory, racist, homophobic or threatening comments, or anything that may violate any applicable laws, use the "Report to Facebook" and "Mark as spam" links that appear next to the comments themselves. To do so, click the downward arrow on the top-right corner of the Facebook comment (the arrow is invisible until you roll over it) and select the appropriate action. You can also send an e-mail to blabbermouthinbox(@)gmail.com with pertinent details. BLABBERMOUTH.NET reserves the right to "hide" comments that may be considered offensive, illegal or inappropriate and to "ban" users that violate the site's Terms Of Service. Hidden comments will still appear to the user and to the user's Facebook friends. If a new comment is published from a "banned" user or contains a blacklisted word, this comment will automatically have limited visibility (the "banned" user's comments will only be visible to the user and the user's Facebook friends).