Amazon Primed For Live

In what is seemingly its first foray into being a live music promoter, Amazon has announced ‘Prime Live Events’, a concert series that will be exclusive to Prime subscribers.

The programme will focus on showcasing established artists in iconic locations, kicking off with Blondie (pictured) at The Round Chapel in Hackney on May 23^rd.  

The gigs marks the 40^th anniversary of Blondie’s first ever performance in the UK, which took place at the Village Bowl in Bournemouth in 1977. Tickets will go on sale this week on Thursday 11^th May at 9am, exclusively for Prime members.

This is Amazon’s first move into staging live events and follows former head of BBC Introducing Jason Carter joining the company as Director, Prime Live events earlier this year.

General Manager of Amazon Tickets Geraldine Wilson said: “We want to offer Prime members the best live entertainment experience they’ve ever had by giving them the chance to see their favourite artists perform up close and personal in iconic and intimate venues,”

Wilson continued: “We’re delighted to reveal our first line-up of fantastic artists performing Prime Live Events in stunning venues to audiences of less than 800, and Prime members in the UK and internationally will have the chance to watch the performance on Prime Video.”

The Prime video broadcast is a nice touch but its all a tad underwhelming and The Gen can’t shake the feeling that if this was Apple, it would be Frank Ocean playing at House of Vans or something along those lines.

However, it is significant in demonstrating that Amazon’s live ambitions go beyond ticketing and Prime ‘lounges’ at venues and festivals and that it wants to be a promoter, rolling access to events into an annual Prime subscription.

Surely, Amazon’s end game here is to offer the customer the entire artist experience, from streaming music, buying physical formats and merch to tickets and the live experience, all wrapped up in a Prime exclusive bundle to drive subscriptions.  Is the acquisition of a live promoter next on the agenda? A quick comparison- Amazon reported $135.99bn in revenue for 2016, while Live Nation reported $8.4bn. It is perhaps a stretch, but the acquisition of the largest and most powerful live music company in the world would be relative chicken feed to the retail company as it seeks to diversify its offering.