Changes under way in ticket-buying experience

-- This season, when it's time to buy a ticket to a concert at Verizon Wireless Virginia Beach Amphitheater or Nissan Pavilion, you won't do it through Ticketmaster, the trusty -- if often griped about -- ticket provider that the majority of venues have used for decades.

Instead, you'll head to www.livenation.com and use its selective seat map, call (877) 598-8698 or trek to a participating Blockbuster, the exclusive ticketing outlet for the newly created Live Nation Tickets.

Live Nation, as most casual music fans know, is the live-music behemoth that is primarily a concert promoter, but also owns and operates more than 100 venues worldwide (including Virginia Beach Amphitheater and Nissan).

On Jan. 1, Live Nation, Ticketmaster's biggest client, officially severed ties with the company and began rolling out its own ticketing in cities including New York, Detroit, Boston and Indianapolis.

Nissan makes the switch Jan. 20 and the Virginia Beach Amphitheater Jan. 26, but since shows and ticket on-sales for either outdoor venue won't be announced for a month or two, you have some time to memorize that phone number and Web address.

Other local venues not owned by Live Nation, including the Richmond Coliseum and Landmark Theater, are under contract with Ticketmaster.

So what's the reason for the latest Live Nation expansion?

Not necessarily to compete with Ticketmaster, said Nathan Hubbard, CEO of ticketing for Live Nation and former CEO of Charlottesville-based entertainment marketing company Musictoday, which Live Nation bought out in 2006.

"We've built [Live Nation] to be a vertically integrated pipe between artist and fan, and when we looked at how we go about doing that, it was clear that we couldn't do it without controlling the distribution platform for tickets," he said. "We wanted greater flexibility, greater control."

In the past 15 months, Live Nation has entered into "360 deals" with artists including Madonna, U2, Jay-Z and the Jonas Brothers, meaning that in return for a multiyear, highly lucrative payday -- Madonna's decade-long commitment is reportedly worth $120 million -- the company has the exclusive rights to release their albums, book their tours, sell their tickets and move merchandise, such as T-shirts and posters.

That all-in-one approach will also trickle down to the consumer with some of Live Nation's ticketing ideas.

"We're sitting down with artists interested in touring next year and saying we have more flexibility, so how do we create the greatest experience for your fans, . . . from the high-end ticket to the guy who wants a super experience on the lawn? They know their fans better than anyone. Some artists are really interested in segmenting their fan base, and some are interested in just coming in and playing the show and getting back on the bus," Hubbard said.

But forget about "live experiences" and "unique opportunities" for a second, because the majority of the live event-buying music fans aren't as interested in a VIP package that will put them 2 feet from Jon Bon Jovi for $1,500 as they are in one thing: ticket fees.

Hubbard agrees that the way fees have historically been presented to the public creates a lot of animosity among fans. Ticketmaster is the most visibly guilty party, but other smaller ticketing agencies haven't been above turning your $45 ticket into a $70 burden by the time "convenience charges" are tacked on.

Live Nation plans to "create more transparency" in the overall price, but that doesn't mean the fees are going away -- just that you might not see them itemized.

"If the artist wants to bundle the fee into the ticket [price], great. If the artist wants to present a single fee, we'll go that way. You'll see us do all kinds of things with those fees," Hubbard said. "Maybe an artist wants to lower them on the lawn but increase them on some of the best seats in the house"

Hubbard also noted that the amount of the fees will vary. "We're trying to gear consumers to looking at the overall value and treat the consumer with that respect," he said.

While Live Nation will likely add about $25 million to its annual revenue by not outsourcing its ticketing to Ticketmaster, that company has already modified its policies while trumpeting a "fan-friendly" mentality.

"We should be, and strive to be, constantly making the experience better for fans. Whether it's better e-mail alerts, partnerships with companies like ilike[.com] so fans know how to get tickets, it's about providing a better solution for our customers," said Albert Lopez, vice president of strategic communications for the newly named Ticketmaster Entertainment.

In late October, Ticketmaster acquired a controlling interest in Front Line Management, the mega artist-management firm fronted by Irving Azoff, the driving force behind the careers of the Eagles, Jimmy Buffett and Aerosmith, among dozens of other top-drawer acts.

Almost immediately, it was announced that for this current leg of the Eagles tour -- which comes to Hampton on Monday -- those infuriating convenience fees would be dropped.

Granted, those fees, which are shared with the venue, the promoter and the artist, don't exactly vanish -- they'll just be built into the overall ticket price. But it eliminates the nasty surprise ticket-buyers receive when it's time to purchase.

"The fan doesn't want to see line items, they want to see a total," Lopez said.

The Eagles experiment, unsurprisingly, received a tremendously positive response from concertgoers, and Lopez said he expects more touring acts to apply all-inclusive ticket prices to their tours this year.

Between that and the expected offerings from Live Nation, ticket buying might be a bit less migraine-inducing in 2009.