A thorough market analysis and recommendation created for a final assignment for Project & Portfolio 2 at Full Sail University.

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A Market Analysis for
House of Blues
Summer Garcia Del Valle
Full Sail University
Project & Portfolio II: Business and Marketing
3/3/24

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
This market analysis report is focused on the House of Blues venues. As a company in
the live entertainment industry, it is important to take advantage of the growth that is happening
in this post-pandemic world. Parent company Live Nation Entertainment is hitting record
breaking revenue, beating out pre-pandemic numbers. House of Blues being part of the Live
Nation Entertainment group, has a great advantage over surrounding venues, but this report
highlights the missing piece of the company that will help them expand their individual brand
and appeal to their target audiences to pull in more events and revenue throughout the next two
years.

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OBJECTIVE
This report has been written to allow House of Blues to see the opportunities for more
growth over the next 2 years. The focus will be on brand improvement events that will take place
during that time. This will allow House of Blues to gain more traction in the live music scene
than their competing local venues and make sure the House of Blues is the venue of choice for
live events.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
The information in this report was gathered during February 2024, using some internal,
but mostly external, secondary research sources from the internet and online databases. Methods
include analysis of reported financials, news articles, and local area music industry reports. The
following information is current as of February 2024.

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RESEARCH AND KEY FINDINGS
House of Blues is a brand that focuses on live entertainment and providing space for
bringing people together through entertainment, and in certain locations, food, and club life.
House of Blues was founded in 1992 by Isaac Tigrett and actor Dan Aykroyd from the movie
“The Blues Brothers”. The first venue was opened as a restaurant and night club in Harvard
Square. Currently, the House of Blues headquarters is in Los Angeles, California. (About | House
of Blues, n.d.) House of Blues is a subsidiary of Live Nation Entertainment, joining the Live
Nation family in 2006, extending their reach across America through its House of Blues name.
Live Nation Entertainment formed in 1996 under the name SFX Entertainment. The
company launched by Robert F. X. Sillerman but has been led by President and CEO Michael
Rapino since 2005. Live Nation runs a ticketing business through Ticketmaster as well as
promoting live events in company owned venues including the House of Blues franchise. Live
Original House of Blues in Harvard Square

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Nation/Ticketmaster is the largest entertainment company in the world, dominating almost every
corner of the live events, and more specifically, live music industry. This includes concert
promotion, ticketing, artist management, and venue operations. (Brown, 2023)
Live Nation Entertainment has just released complete earnings information for 2023,
showing that the company is doing fantastic in this post-pandemic live entertainment industry.
Revenue is up 36% compared to last year ending at $22.7 billion thanks to record levels of
attendance, ticket sales and sponsorships. Adjusted operating income (AOI) was $1.86 billion, up
32% year-over-year and double the AOI from 2019, the last full year before the pandemic.
(Peoples, 2024)
House of Blues being a subsidiary of Live Nation works well in their favor. With Live
Nation seeing record sales over the past year, that projected growth is expected to continue to
rise.
House of Blues appeals to a wide range of audience. The target audience changes
depending on the performances that are running through the venue’s stages. House of Blues
hosts events from small artists to artists that sell out the entire venue, comedic acts, special

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events, private events and more. Live Nation has a Special Events Group with over 150 venues
across North America, including the House of Blues venues. They offer unique event spaces,
state-of-the-art production, and branding capabilities, as well as an experienced staff ready to
exceed guests' expectations. (Live Nation Special Events, n.d.). Being part of the Live Nation
family allows House of Blues the marketing and reach to book more events and even raise
revenue in terms of raising ticket prices.
House of Blues prides itself in their mission to bring people together and creating great
experiences through live music. With the mantra “Unity in Diversity” guiding the company, they
stick to the original mission statement.
“To create a profitable, principled, global entertainment company to
celebrate the diversity and brotherhood of world cultures. To promote racial and
spiritual harmony through love, peace, truth, righteousness and non-violence.”
(About | House of Blues, n.d.)
The House of Blues mission of Unity in Diversity is a big strength for the company. In a
world with everchanging morals, social change and challenges, House of Blues holding these
morals as a priority is beneficial because it appeals to artists, attendees, and employees. While
the House of Blues Music Forward Foundation has shortened their moniker to Music Forward to
help the public understand its role as an independent provider of direct services to youth, the
disconnect may be too apparent to the public. (Music Forward Foundation, n.d.) The Music
Forward Foundation programs break the barriers of gender, poverty, and race for young people
to follow their dreams into the music industry and they have done an amazing job as a
foundation. For 30 years, Music Forward has impacted over 1,000,000 young lives and invested

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more than $42 million towards providing transformational music opportunities to youth from
under-represented communities. (About Us « Music Forward Foundation, n.d.)
The House of Blues does not seem to have much community outreach on the surface, and
this can be a big weakness, considering the large name and the number of locations that exist.
Locally owned venues of this size tend to have more involvement with the community. In a
community that looks for ways to help each other and give back, a clear connection to the Music
Forward Foundation may be equally beneficial in improving the House of Blues brand as well as
extending exposure for the foundation.
CONCLUSIONS
House of Blues being a part of the Live Nation family is a large advantage that will play
into the upcoming years, but it is important not to rely on the name and connection to such a
large parent company. With multiple local venues surrounding the venue locations, House of
Blues must focus on keeping traction with two different target audiences: attendees of live events
and local or touring performers. The House of Blues has great values as a company that appeal to
an evolving society focused on inclusion, but unless researched, the mission is lost in the image

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that is perceived by consumers. The live music and events industry is seeing a significant boost
over the upcoming years and now is the time to take advantage of the growth in the industry.
RECOMMENDATIONS
Based on the research and findings in the report, the company needs to focus on one goal.
Expanding its brand name and focus on the original mission to capture the evolving society that
is focused on creating opportunity that is inclusive and diverse. This will bring the House of
Blues brand more recognition and in turn, more revenue than rival venues.
It is recommended that the House of Blues utilizes each venue to create a community
outreach event that is partnered with the Music Forward Foundation. Following these community
outreach events; the company should sponsor and work
with various artists of different genres to perform in every
state and expand the reach of the foundation.
Using these events, creating a network of local
artists that have been impacted by the Music Forward
Foundation will be beneficial. House of Blues can offer a
range of genres and performances in live entertainment
that can be appealing to those looking to book special
events at the House of Blues. In turn, this will help those
artists with great exposure.
An attainable and impactful goal would be to
increase the numbers reported on the impact report. Music Forward impacted tens of thousands
of lives last year. Increasing this number by 20% over the course of the next two years would

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raise awareness for the foundation and bring light back to the roots and the original mission
statement of the House of Blues. Unity in Diversity.

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REFERENCES
About | House of Blues. (n.d.). https://www.houseofblues.com/about
About us « Music Forward Foundation. (n.d.). https://musicforwardfoundation.org/about-us/
Brown, K. (2023, June 15). The Depth of Live Nation’s Dominance - American Economic
Liberties Project. American Economic Liberties
Project. https://www.economicliberties.us/our-work/the-depth-of-live-nations-
dominance/
Cross, A. (2023, September 10). The post-COVID live music scene: There’s some good news and
some bad news. Global News. Retrieved February 20, 2024,
from https://globalnews.ca/news/9944512/music-scene-post-covid-19/
Development | House of Blues. (n.d.). https://www.houseofblues.com/development
Live Nation Special Events | Corporate & private event venues.
(n.d.). https://specialevents.livenation.com/
Our impact « Music Forward Foundation. (n.d.). https://musicforwardfoundation.org/our-
impact/
Peoples, G. (2024, February 22). Live Nation Had Another Record Year as Its Business Went
Global & Fans Continued Flocking to
Shows. Billboard. https://www.billboard.com/business/touring/live-nation-earnings-
record-revenue-artist-tours-fan-demand-high-1235612747/
Richter, F. (2023, June 23). Live music industry to return from Covid slump in 2023. Statista
Daily Data. https://www.statista.com/chart/30261/estimated-gross-merchandise-value-of-
online-ticket-sales-to-music-events-worldwide/
Strout, A. (2024, February 22). Live Nation Entertainment Reports Full year and fourth quarter
2023 results - Live Nation Entertainment. Live Nation
Entertainment. https://www.livenationentertainment.com/2024/02/live-nation-
entertainment-reports-full-year-and-fourth-quarter-2023-results/

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Tencer, D. (2023, July 31). Live Nation’s booming earnings aren’t just a post COVID rebound –
and 4 other things we learned from the. Music Business
Worldwide. https://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/live-nations-booming-earnings-
arent-just-a-post-covid-rebound-and-4-other-things-we-learned-from-the-companys-q2-
earnings-call/
The Associated Press. (2024, February 23). A swift rebound and unprecedented tickets sales for
live music after pandemic shut venues down. News Channel 3-
12. https://keyt.com/news/2024/02/23/a-swift-rebound-and-unprecedented-tickets-sales-
for-live-music-after-pandemic-shut-venues-down/
FULL SAIL LIBRARY REFERENCES
MarketLine Company Profile: Live Nation Entertainment Inc. (2023). In Live Nation
Entertainment, Inc. MarketLine Company Profile (pp. 1–60). Retrieved from https://web-
p-ebscohost-com.oclc.fullsail.edu/ehost/detail/detail?vid=0&sid=2d6d9776-abaa-4967-
a7c7-
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Lombrana, L. M. (2021). Mass Live Concert Offers a Glimpse of Music in Post-Pandemic
Era. Bloomberg.Com, N.PAG. Retrieved from https://web-p-ebscohost-
com.oclc.fullsail.edu/ehost/detail/detail?vid=0&sid=80bea0f6-db98-4c8e-9123-
9be51285a6f6%40redis&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#AN=14951234
4&db=bth