Live Nation Inc.’s Chief Executive Michael Rapino said that by ending a long-term contract with Ticketmaster, the company will gain additional control over the distribution of tickets to its shows, confirming speculation that the company was moving to form its own ticket selling business.

Rapino added, while speaking at a conference in New York, that the world’s largest concert promoter should also enter the secondary-ticketing business, whihc is dominated by companies including StubHub and EBay.

“We have zero market share in it,” he said of the secondary ticket sales market. “We should be in that business and the artists want us to be in that business.”

Ticketmaster said last month that it was expecting Beverly Hills-based Live Nation to not renew the deal between the two industry giants.

The current deal, which allows West Hollywood-based Ticketmaset to sell tickets for Live Nation’s 160 venues, ends next year a separate deal with Ticketmaster and the House of Blues, which Live Nation acquired last summer, ends in 2009.

Shares in Live Nation closed down 19 cents to $20.73 Wednesday on the New York Stock Exchange.