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Live Nation Entertainment Inc. wants music fans to spend as much money at its shows as they do at a Disneyland outing. Now, the country's biggest concert promoter just has to figure out how to get that done in what is a much shorter time frame.

As part of an effort to boost the slim profit it makes selling concert tickets, Live Nation has focused on boosting the amount each fan spends on average on items such as food and drinks. Spending at its amphitheaters grew 10% this year over last to $22 a fan a day.

It hopes ultimately to lift that figure to at least $30, akin to what major league ball parks collect per visitor and near estimates of Disney parks' roughly $40 a visitor—at the 40-plus amphitheaters and the festivals it runs, executives said. Live Nation is experimenting with a range of new ideas, from using smartphone apps to market services, selling more wine and high-price craft beers, to VIP lounges and using brightly clad "ambassadors" to direct fans to the least-busy concession stands.

"This high-margin spend has been a key driver of our growing concerts profitability in 2016," Chief Executive Michael Rapino recently told investors.

Live Nation has been posting record revenues lately amid a boom in the live music business, but its profit margins have remained thin, around one-ninth the size of Disney's margins on its parks and resorts last year, with much of Live Nation's $131 million in operating income in 2015 coming from sponsorship and advertising.

The top 100 global tours grossed $4.7 billion last year, up 16% from 2014, according to concert-industry publication Pollstar. But the vast majority of ticket revenue flows to performers, with promoters keeping only a sliver. Live Nation lost $32 million last year on $7.2 billion in revenue.

The Beverly Hills, Calif.-based company a year ago launched the effort to boost margins from add-on sales by hiring theme-park veteran Tom See. Mr. See worked for years at Walt Disney Parks & Resorts and later was vice president of sales at Universal Studios Hollywood.

But catching up to spending at Disneyland and other such theme parks is especially challenging because concertgoers typically are at a venue for much less time than theme park visitors. He said Live Nation can clear that hurdle by increasing what he calls its "speed of play," using ambassadors to help fans navigate venues so that they have more time to make transactions. A Disney spokeswoman didn't respond to a request for comment.

"Time is our Achilles' heel," Mr. See said. "But if we can service you faster, you'll probably spend more."

Part of the challenge still ahead is coming up with more things to sell than standbys like beer and T-shirts—especially since fans' sensibilities can vary widely. At concerts this summer at the Jiffy Lube Live amphitheater in Virginia and the Jones Beach Theater in Long Island, N.Y., Mr. See tested "ultra lounges" that offered food choices by a chef trained at Napa Culinary Institute. The package included an escort to their seats at show time in an effort to alleviate "all the frictions of coming to a show." Still he said they "have a lot of learning to do on the V.I.P. side" as his team mulls offering various perks for certain shows, such as a well-known DJ in ultra lounges geared toward hip-hop fans.

When Mr. See started the job, he said he noticed that fans at Live Nation-operated venues "weren't greeted by anyone special," while staff wore black-and-red outfits that were hard to distinguish from other fans' garb. It was also hard to find wine, he said, even at concerts with mostly female audiences.

This summer Mr. See began staffing Live Nation's amphitheaters and festivals with teams of greeters wearing bright yellow shirts with "May I Help You" printed on the back. He also stocked the company's venues with local craft beers, which are pricier but which many fans prefer, and increased wine sales 85% through a partnership with hospitality group Legends.

"We kind of like that from a revenue perspective," said Mr. See.

Using Live Nation's app, meanwhile, fans can now see the food and drink options available when they enter a venue and can upgrade their seats if better ones are available. At some shows this summer they were able to order food to directly their seats.

Sometimes little details can make a big difference. At most of its amphitheaters this summer, Live Nation joined with Tito's Handmade Vodka and staged vodka-lemonade stands around the venues, serving the cocktails in Mason jars that turned out to be popular as mementos.

As Mr. See strolled around with one of the concoctions at a show, people asked him: "Where did you get that Mason jar?" Mr. See recalled. "We're onto something with that."

Write to Hannah Karp at hannah.karp@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

November 13, 2016 23:55 ET (04:55 GMT)

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