MICHAEL RAPINO

It's a very competitive market. AEG has a ticketing platform, Stubhub has grown their marketshare, Vivid has come out of nowhere. It's not like venues don't have options. If you're a venue you can pick any ticket platform you want, and we have to provide a better product and win that business fair and square.

Madonna would not have done a 360 deal with us just because of our touring capability. We had to prove to her and others that we have been working on and built a very good execution capacity at Artist Nation.

The history of the ticketing business was about barriers to entry, which kept Ticketmaster protected. That has changed.

We have not had a ton of innovation and marketing in the concert industry, much like the record industry. We have been a fairly old-school business compared to Coca-Cola and the big packaging/marketing companies.

A hit is a hit, and when you have a hit great things happen.

There's always a fine line between 'What is the market going to bear?' and, 'By the way, I've got 2,000 unsold seats.'

We believe that the Internet is the live concert promoters best friend although it might have crippled the record label business.

Vice has done a great job at talking to millennials.

Adding C3, the leading festival portfolio in North America, to our global portfolio of Insomniac, Festival Republic and Country Nation provides Live Nation with the world's largest festival platform.

You look at the Rolling Stones. It had the lips, the logo and the style. You look at Jay-Z, who I think is probably the smartest brand marketer I've ever met. These people understand the core of what their brand is and what their fans want.

Live is truly a unique entertainment form; it cannot be duplicated and creates lifetime memories that fans are craving more than ever in this experience economy.

We spend a great deal of time getting the fan to buy the ticket. Why shouldn't it be: 'Buy the concert ticket and bundle in the t-shirt, or join the fan club?'

Drake has become a mega-star, with sell-out crowds around the world.

I got lucky when I was a teenager when we were booking bands at university. Those gigs were the greatest two hours in my life and there was nothing else I wanted to do. I knew my passion early, which is always the tough part of life, figuring out what makes you tick.

I'm an introvert by nature.

Hosting over 35,000 concerts and festivals each year, Live Nation has the opportunity and responsibility to provide our artists and fans with a live music experience that protects our planet. The adverse effects of climate change are undeniable, and we want to use our place on the world stage to be part of the solution.

History has shown that even in a recession, consumers go to shows.

Rihanna can sell just as many tickets in Cape Town as she can in Detroit.

The concert industry lags dramatically behind the great hospitality businesses out there, whether they're theme parks or hotels or sporting events.

When a fan buys a ticket, we learn an enormous amount about them: What bands they like, where they live, how much they are willing to spend. Someday, a fan will be sitting in a bar and his cellphone will text message 'Sonic Youth are playing tonight. Do you want to go?' He'll buy his ticket over the phone and walk to the concert.

We can't say to a Ticketmaster venue that says they want to use a different ticketing platform, 'If you do that, we won't put shows in your building.'

One of the strengths of Michael Cohl is he's a big thinker, strategic, great with relationships, artists and big deals.

Our job is to build a company for the future that can meet the demands of the artist and fan of the future.

Corporate America couldn't be more excited about the demise of the record companies.

We want people to know that Live Nation can serve all their live-music needs. If we're going to be the ones who have a relationship with the consumer, then we have a responsibility to be the ones accountable if things go bad.