Opposition Continues to Live Nation in Silver Spring

A Post business columnist and an independent music non-profit have joined the chorus questioning Live Nation's proposal for a Silver Spring music hall. Last Friday, Steven Pearlstein wrote that while I.M.P. boss Seth Hurwitz has fought against competition for his 9:30 Club before, and his alternative proposal to Live Nation is in his own best interest, "he's put forward a financial proposal attractive enough that county officials cannot ignore it."

Under their non-binding letter of intent, Live Nation would receive $8 million from the state and county and receive other incentives, while I.M.P.'s proposal would cost $2 million less (or nothing, if they were allowed to buy the building) and would pay double the rent to the county.

Pearlstein adds that the best thing for Montgomery County executive Ike Leggett to do would be give Hurwitz 120 days to negotiate a land deal, get funding and the like. If it works out for Hurwitz, the county saves money, and if not, as least Leggett has done his due diligence.

Then the other day, we started getting CCed on emails to Leggett, Montgomery County councilmen, journalists, and bloggers. The emails were from different people but all had the same text, praising I.M.P. and urging the county to look at their proposal. The body text originated from the Institute for Independent Music, aka IFI Music, a recently founded non-profit based in Silver Spring.

Ken Wingate, founder and president of IFI Music, said the goal of the institute is to become like a Sundance Institute for independent music. The Institute has an online petition, and will also talk about the Live Nation-I.M.P. controversy on its online radio show tonight Tuesday at 8 (DCist contributor Valerie Paschall will be on the show). So far about 90 people have sent the petition, in addition to at least 20-30 who just copy and pasted the email.

And Mike Mills, editor of the Washington Business Journal, pointed out a column he wrote in October, before the I.M.P. proposal, making the case that lawmakers probably didn't intend for some of that $8 million to go to Live Nation. The original bill was called "Creation of State Debt -- Montgomery County -- Birchmere Music Hall" and was passed back when the Birchmere was in negotiations with the county for the space. Mills asked, "Would Maryland lawmakers have approved the bill if it was titled 'Creation of State Debt -- Live Nation?' I doubt it," and adds:

The company certainly doesn't seem to need the help. Live Nation owns or controls more than 160 venues nationwide and has $3.8 billion in 2006 revenue. Indeed, Live Nation's business model is the future of pop music.

All of this may be too little, too late, especially with Leggett mentioning the deal in Monday's State of the County.

Photo by dcJohn used under a Creative Commons license