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Facebook is working with Live Nation to make organizing concert tours easier

Facebook is working with Live Nation to make organizing concert tours easier

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Facebook is also testing the feature with Red Light Management

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Facebook is testing out a new feature that will allow artists, managers, and tour promoters to organize and manage tour-related Facebook events, the company tells The Verge. For example, if an artist is on a 40-city tour, there’s going to be 40 Facebook events for the concerts, plus meet-and-greet events, and potentially club appearances after the show. The new feature allows for all of those events to be grouped together and managed more easily, allowing for consistent messaging from the artist to their fans.

The social network has seen 40 percent growth year over year in users who engage with events created by Pages — over 550 million people using Facebook events every month. In a statement, Facebook Events product manager Bruna de Goes said that Facebook’s entertainment partners have been asking for better tools to manage events.

“We've heard from our partners, and especially our entertainment partners, that posting their events on Facebook drives RSVPs and ticket sales,” de Goes said. “They've also told us that for recurring events like tours, there hadn't been an easy tool on Facebook. So, we're testing a feature allowing Event admins to more easily share multiple Facebook Events together as a series or tour.”

This is the latest step in Facebook’s push to strengthen its ties to the music industry

This is the latest step in Facebook’s push to strengthen its ties to the music industry. Last year, Facebook integrated Ticketmaster’s API to allow you to find tickets right from event postings, which can now be more easily coordinated by an artist’s team. This year, it hired YouTube executive Tamara Hrivnak — the only person the music industry loved at Google — to be its head of music business development and partnerships. Now its standalone Facebook Events app could become a key component for artists and fans alike, helping to push even more ticket sales thanks to these changes. Not to mention the company has been increasingly engaged in talks with the music labels recently, according to multiple sources.

The social network is currently testing out the feature with Live Nation and Red Light Management, which manages bands like Dave Matthews Band, Alabama Shakes, and Phish. Facebook’s goal is to make it easier for artist to use its services and in turn generate a better experience for their fans, something that Red Light Management is happy about.

“Working with Facebook to ensure that artists are able to effectively promote their tours has long been a top priority for us,” Red Light Management’s digital strategy head Jennifer Bird told The Verge. “Tour messaging isn't just about selling tickets. We want to build lasting relationships wherever artists reach their fans and these new features help us do just that.”