O2 and Live Nation/AMG announce strategic sponsorship alliance to benefit both artists and fans
 

O2 and Live Nation/AMG have announced a strategic sponsorship alliance to launch O2 Academy venues across the UK. The venues are majority owned by Live Nation alongside fellow shareholders, leading UK concert promoters Metropolis Music and SJM Concerts.

The five-year alliance - reportedly worth more than £22m - is aimed at boosting support for future music talent and enhancing the music experience for fans visiting the venues, as well as allowing O2 to offer a number of benefits for its customers. From the 1st January, 2009, the eleven AMG venues (some previously sponsored by Carling) will each be renamed as an O2 Academy. O2 customers will gain priority access to tickets to all gigs at the venues, as well as other Live Nation events across the country. In total, O2 customers will gain special access to as many as 4,000 Live Nation produced shows a year in the UK up to forty-eight hours before they go on general sale. Live Nation is the largest producer of live concerts in the world, annually producing over 16,000 concerts for 1,500 artists in fifty-seven countries. The company sells over 45 million concert tickets a year and expects to drive over 60 million unique visitors to LiveNation.com in 2008. O2 was launched on 1st May, 2002, and now has more customers than any other UK mobile network. Unparalleled "Our customers tell us that they really value having priority access to tickets at The O2, so we want to bring this benefit to even more customers", said Ronan Dunne, Chief Executive at Telefónica O2 UK. "The O2 Academy venues are a hugely important part of the UK's music scene and we admire their role in musical heritage. Through this partnership we are not only looking to benefit O2 customers, but to also enhance the live experience for all artists and music fans." "O2's credentials in supporting live music are unparalleled", added Simon Lewis, President, Music Marketing Partnerships International, "and we are very enthusiastic about working with a partner with such integrity and understanding of the fan/artist relationship. We intend this partnership to take O2's position in live music to new heights and allow us to market our concerts and artist-related products to millions of O2 customers and drive incremental ticket sales." John Northcote, CEO Academy Music Group, was equally upbeat about the new sponsorship deal: "Academy Music Group is the UK's leading live music venue owner and operator and we have successfully built a nationwide network of premier concert venues across the country. It is very important that we     continue to improve the artist and customer experience, working with like-minded partners. O2 have a dedicated programme and track record of rewarding their customers and embracing new methods of communication, as well as supporting new and emerging artists." As part of the relation- ship with Live Nation, O2 plans to reinforce the Academy venues as key outlets for grassroots music in the UK, ensuring new musical talent is recognised and supported. Over the past four years, O2 has supported up-and-coming artists with its O2 Undiscovered music programme, which endeavours to open up careers in the music industry. O2 says it will ensure that the O2 Academy venues form a centre point for grassroots musical talent in their local communities, as well as creating synergies with O2 It's Your Community, a nationwide £1million community grants programme. Unique O2 says it will work closely with Live Nation/AMG to enhance the concert going experience, developing technologies, such as mobile ticketing, which are both convenient and environmentally friendly, and utilise the venues to assess the benefits of contact-less NFC (Near Field Communication) technology in the music industry. The company's customers may also be able to enjoy other unique benefits that will significantly enhance their experience, including fast track entry, creating areas for O2 customers and their guests where they can relax before and after events, and opportunities to text ahead for special benefits. Platforms O2 will also have first option to exclusive live content from O2 Academy gigs and will work closely with the artists to make this content available for download to mobile handsets. Through its Napster and MyPlay music services, O2 has a variety of platforms available for artists to distribute their music directly to fans. The deal incorporates the following venues: O2 Academy Brixton, O2 Academy Islington, O2 Academy Birmingham, O2 Academy Bristol, O2 Academy Glasgow, O2 Academy Liverpool, O2 Academy Newcastle, O2 Academy Oxford, O2 Academy Sheffield, O2 Academy Leeds and O2 Shepherd's Bush Empire.