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The sponsorship will grant Starwood "Official Hotel Partner" status for select Live Nation venues including the House of Blues(R) Clubs. SPG members will be rewarded with robust music offerings including special ticket offers, premium seats and interactive artist experiences for select Live Nation concerts. SPG members will also have access to retail discounts for artist merchandise and House of Blues restaurants purchases, and a wide array of other benefits.
Live Nation will help Starwood drive room stays through multi-platform media placement at Live Nation venues and seamless hotel booking integration on all "Where to Stay" web pages on LiveNation.com. The site is the gateway for Live Nation Ticketing, the company’s recently-launched in-house ticketing platform, which further demonstrates Live Nation’s ability to facilitate a connection for Starwood directly with millions of targeted consumers. This strategic alliance is also expected to drive incremental ticket sales for Live Nation through multiple media channels both online and in-room, reaching millions of guests worldwide.
"Securing this strategic business alliance with a distinctive, global brand like Starwood is a testament to the value and reach of Live Nation’s integrated live music platform. We interact directly with millions of avid music fans annually through our venues and online platforms regardless of economic conditions," said Russell Wallach, Live Nation’s President of North American Alliances. "Working together, we will open up a wide range of avenues to drive business among Starwood’s hotel guests, as well as music fans across the country."
"This innovative partnership with Live Nation will help us to build even greater loyalty among our SPG members and also attract new customers from the millions of music fans who attend Live Nation shows," said Phil McAveety, Chief Brand Officer for Starwood. "We’re always seeking new ways to offer unique experiences that our members can share with those close to them, and are thrilled with the opportunities that this partnership creates."
About Live Nation
Live Nation’s mission is to maximize the live concert experience for artists, fans and sponsors. Our core business is buying and producing artist rights and monetizing those rights via our global distribution pipe. Live Nation is the largest producer of live music concerts in the world, annually producing over 16,000 concerts for 1,500 artists in 57 countries. The company sells over 45 million concert tickets a year and expects to drive over 60 million unique visitors to livenation.com in 2008. Live Nation is transforming the concert business by expanding its concert platform into direct concert ticketing and building the industry’s only artist-to-fan vertically integrated concert platform. Headquartered in Los Angeles, California, Live Nation is listed on the New York Stock Exchange, trading under the symbol "LYV." Additional Information about the company can be found at www.livenation.com/investors.
About Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc.
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. is one of the leading hotel and leisure companies in the world with approximately 936 properties in more than 100 countries and 155,000 employees at its owned and managed properties. Starwood(R) Hotels is a fully integrated owner, operator and franchisor of hotels and resorts with the following internationally renowned brands: St. Regis(R), The Luxury Collection(R), Sheraton(R), Westin(R), Four Points(R) by Sheraton, W(R), Le Meridien(R) and the recently announced AloftSM and ElementSM. Starwood Hotels also owns Starwood Vacation Ownership, Inc., one of the premier developers and operators of high quality vacation interval ownership resorts. For more information, please visit www.starwoodhotels.com.
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SOURCE: Live Nation