Last night on KLSX a caller in Orange County, an early TWENTYSOMETHING, reported that he had paid $4,000 for front row tickets to see Paul McCartney.

Yes, that was the topic.  Ticket prices.  What was a fair price.

Stunningly, the only people complaining that prices were too high were those who never go.  As for the regular concertgoers, the biggest bitch was not the price, but the fact that they couldn’t GET tickets.  Thinking about all this I realized the problem facing the concert industry was not outrageous ticket prices, but few acts people wanted to see.

There are the momentary superstars, like the Spice Girls, or the Backstreet Boys, who can work arenas briefly and then essentially can’t work again.  But as for acts doing solid arena business year after year…the only acts that can do this are those that have been around seemingly FOREVER!

Oh, there’s the rare exception, i.e. Radiohead, but nobody seems to want to see today’s stars at almost any price.  Oh, not nobody.  But certainly not numbers that fill LiveNation’s amphitheatres.  It appears that we’ve got club business and geriatric arena business.  And nobody seems poised to permanently graduate from the small venues to the bigs.

Those yearly concert gross totals.  They hide the real issue.  When the baby boomer acts die off, who in the hell is anybody going to want to SEE?

Blame MTV.  For the channel created INSTANT superstars.  Who fell back to earth almost as quickly.  I mean what kind of business could Gerardo do today?  Never mind Haircut 100.  MTV’s out of the music business, but that’s not an option for concert promoters.  Oh, they can fill their buildings with ice shows and circuses, but if they want to book musical acts…they’re up against a wall.

But it gets worse.  LiveNation and HOB have stockholders.  They’ve got to put up revenue.  They’ve got to book shows.  They can’t afford to sit on the sidelines, bringing the value of non-sellout acts down.  Used to be if there was nothing to book, promoters didn’t.  Before they all owned amphitheatres, before Robert Sillerman rolled up the fiefdoms and built the Clear Channel/LiveNation colossus.

It’s kind of like baseball.  The promoters have to lock the acts out.  To get the agents to take less money.  Some kind of revenue sharing deal maybe.  But baseball has got an antitrust exemption.  And it’s a club no one can compete with/penetrate.  Whereas collusion is right around the corner if concert promoters all refuse to pay exorbitant fees.  AND, indies could come in and penetrate the business anyway.

And while the agents and promoters feud, the talent pool continues to dry up.  It’s fucked.

Now that MTV is essentially done with music and terrestrial radio has capitulated to the major labels’ interest, what we’re left with is the aging superstars who don’t need either, the overhyped newbies who can’t sell a ticket, and the plethora of indies marketing on the Net.  Who can’t fill buildings that will put a Mercedes in the driveway of ANY of the traditional players, whether it be promoter, agent or manager.  Well, a good manager can make a lot.  If he builds his act.  But getting to the point where he’s got a cash cow, throwing off dough to all the ancillary players…one has to ask, where he’s going to get the exposure?  How’s he going to amass all the eyeballs?

So we’re back to the sixties.  BEFORE Woodstock.  When you had multi-act bills and cheap tickets for an alternative universe.  Will a new Woodstock come?  Probably not before the aged acts are too lame to walk the boards.