Live Nation revels as clamour for gigs reaches crescendo US rapper Jay-Z will be performing at a Live Nation event in July A year ago it was the setting for a triumphant London Olympics but these days the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park is rocking to a different beat. Music, rather than athletics, is now pulling in the crowds: next month Jay-Z and Justin Timberlake will headline a two-day music festival promoted by Live Nation Entertainment, the concert promoter that bought Ticketmaster in 2009 for $400m. Live Nation used to stage the festival in Hyde Park but an all-star show last summer featuring Paul McCartney and Bruce Springsteen ended in silent disarray when the performers played beyond their curfew and the plug was pulled mid-song. After that, Live Nation was keen to find another home. "The negativity was growing," says Michael Rapino, Live Nation's chief executive at the company's Beverly Hills headquarters, when asked about relations with the Hyde Park operator. Noise restrictions and logistical issues were making it difficult to stage events there, he says. We were looking for somewhere to put on those above and beyond shows. We knew Olympic Park well and we thought: "This is not a place that finds the show an inconvenience."" The switch to a new London venue - a city Mr Rapino calls the concert industry's "global leader" - comes as Live Nation last week prevailed in court against CTS Eventim, a European ticketing services company. CTS had claimed Live Nation breached a software licensing agreement; the International Court of Arbitration ruled that Live Nation had validly terminated its agreement. The shares spiked following the ruling. Live Nation shares have risen more than 70 per cent in the past 12 months. Live Nation has restructured its operations since the takeover of Ticketmaster, which has coincided with the return to health of live touring. The industry is on course for its best year since before the financial crisis, boosted by an expanding global marketplace and new arenas. "Every new major economic development project around the world has a sports arena or amphitheatre as its tent pole," says Rich Tullo, director of research at Albert Fried & Co, a broker-dealer. These places want Lady Gaga and Rihanna to tour. Live music has picked up the slack over the last decade even as recorded music sales has deteriorated due to piracy and a digital distribution model that does not favour album sales. In fact the growth in live music will "more than offset the continued decline in recorded music revenues," according to PwC. It estimates that sales of tickets and sponsorship will generate revenues of $30.9bn in 2017, up from $26.5bn in 2012. Touring is being boosted by artists that are prepared to tour for longer - and go global. "They are playing more and more dates outside North America," says Mr Rapino. It used to be that they would play Europe and North America but now Asia and Latin America are also part of the conversation. The expansion of social media means the promotion of tours has also changed, he says. The stars are now more involved - particularly those with large online followings. Stars like Rihanna now have a global audience [on social networks] well beyond what MTV [and] radio used to deliver. Life for Live Nation has not always been smooth since the Ticketmaster takeover, with the deal facing considerable regulatory scrutiny before it was eventually given the all-clear in 2010. More recently, Irving Azoff, the combative manager of acts including The Eagles and Christina Aguilera, quit as Live Nation chairman in January. That was in January but since then, the shares have continued to climb. John Malone's Liberty Media has increased its holding in the company from 20 to more than 25 per cent and the company will shortly launch its first new product since the merger, with a service that allows customers to buy tickets on the secondary market. Mr Rapino, who began his career at Labatt Breweries, is refocusing Live Nation's efforts on selling advertising. We had to take advertising from a low level - selling signs on site - to becoming a media business. We know you're going to be at the venue, we're talking to you along the way. We have your email address, your mobile phone . . . and then I can put a banner or a sample on the seat you're about to sit down on. The company also realised it was sitting on a treasure trove of customer data from 400m customers, he adds. When Live Nation bought Ticketmaster "there were 14 fragmented databases that didn't talk to each other," he says. The company has built one global database "to bring [the data] to life." If you're the LA Dodgers you have data on everyone who comes to a Dodgers game. What you don't have is everyone else in LA who maybe hasn't come to a Dodgers game or who hasn't come in a few years. We can show them data about customers who went to other sporting events or concerts that are highly likely to want to see the Dodgers. The takeover of Ticketmaster married the content - the music from concerts promoted by Live Nation - to distribution, as represented by Ticketmaster's ticket sales. Live Nation never had a way to reach consumers directly, he says. But now it does. Artists will always gravitate to anyone who can distribute their content, whether it's a radio station for their music or MTV for their video. We wanted to be the one shaking the consumer's hand.