Digital Notes: New Deal Gives StubHub a Greater Role in Concert Sales

In the latest sign that ticket scalping has gone mainstream, the Anschutz Entertainment Group, a major sports and concert company that operates more than 100 sites and arenas around the world, has agreed to have StubHub become the resale market for many of its events, the companies said on Monday.

Starting early next year, StubHub, an eBay subsidiary, will become integrated into Anschutz's new ticketing system, AXS, allowing exchanges between buyers and sellers within the system by managing the tickets' bar codes. In addition, PayPal, which is also owned by eBay, will become a accepted method of payment on AXS. The announcement said the deal would include “further integrations” between eBay and the Anschutz Entertainment Group's various business.

Anschutz's properties include the Staples Center in Los Angeles, the O2 Arena in London and sports teams like the Los Angeles Kings; it also has an interest in the Los Angeles Lakers. Its concert division, A.E.G. L ive, is the second largest in the world after Live Nation. The full entertainment group was put up for sale in September by its parent company, the Anschutz Corporation, with price estimates ranging from $7 billion to $10 billion.

Live Nation competes with StubHub through TicketsNow, another marketplace for reselling tickets, which was bought by Ticketmaster in 2008 for $265 million. (Ticketmaster merged with Live Nation in 2010.)

Record Company Investment: The value of recorded music has been gradually shrinking, but in recent years record companies have maintained relatively steady levels of investment in developing and promoting artists.

According to a report released on Monday by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, a trade group based in London, record companies last year spent $2.7 billion on artists and repertory - finding, signing and developing artists - or about 16 percent of the industry's global wholesale revenue. Including marketing expenses, the total investment was $4.5 billion, or 26 percent of revenue.

Those figures are slightly less than what the federation found in its last such report, two years ago, even if costs are rising. Looking at figures from 2008, the trade group said that $5 billion was spent on artists and marketing, about 29 percent of revenue. At that time, though, it cost labels about $1 million to “break in” a new act, counting contract advances, recording and video expenses, and other marketing and promotion; in the most recent report, that figure was $1.4 million.

From 2008 to 2011, global revenue from recorded music fell almost 15 percent, to $17 billion from $20 billion, the group has reported. At its peak in 1999, the industry had nearly $29 billion in revenue.

Ben Sisario writes about the music industry. Follow @sisario on Twitter.