From 1 January 2009, the 11 AMG venues will be renamed O2 Academy. O2 customers will gain priority access to tickets to all gigs at the venues, as well as other Live Nation events across the country. In total, O2 customers will gain special access to as many as 4,000 Live Nation produced shows a year in the UK up to 48 hours before they go on general sale.
"Our customers tell us that they really value having priority access to tickets at The O2, so we want to bring this benefit to even more customers," said Ronan Dunne, chief executive at Telefónica O2 UK. "The O2 Academy venues are a hugely important part of the UK's music scene and we admire their role in musical heritage. Through this partnership we are not only looking to benefit O2 customers, but to also enhance the live experience for all artists and music fans."
As part of the relationship with Live Nation, O2 plans to reinforce the Academy venues as key outlets for grass-roots music in the UK. Over the past four years, O2 has supported up-and-coming artists with its O2 Undiscovered Music programme which endeavours to open up careers in the music industry. O2 says it will ensure that the O2 Academy venues form a focus for grass-roots musical talent in their local communities as well as creating synergies with O2 It's Your Community, a nationwide £1million community grants programme.
O2 will also have first option to exclusive live content from O2 Academy gigs and will work closely with the artists to make this content available for download to mobile handsets. Through its Napster and MyPlay music services, O2 has a variety of platforms available for artists to distribute their music directly to fans.
(Jim Evans)
