Is Celine Dion gonna give birth on stage? Does every attendee get a blow job by either George Clooney or Angelina Jolie, customer’s choice? Is John Lennon gonna come back from the dead to duet with her on "Whatever Gets You Thru The Night"? If not, why the fuck do I have to pay $500 a year in advance for tickets?

Let me tell you how it worked. The record labels signed the acts. Then they promoted them at radio. And the concert promoter performed cleanup, he picked up the crumbs and made his slice selling tickets to see these acts live. Sure, the experience was great, but the action was in the record.

Then the labels got greedy. Raised their prices. Had only one good track per CD. And radio consolidated and became calcified and people tuned out. End result, the labels are in free-fall. You don’t need me to tell you this, just read the newspaper, or check SoundScan.

Simultaneous with the decline of the labels came the consolidation of the concert business. And the concomitant run-up in ticket prices. Concertgoing went from a regular activity to a once a year event. (Ask Michael Rapino for the statistics, Live Nation patrons go to fewer than two concerts per year.) But with higher ticket prices and rich baby boomers indulging themselves and their progeny, grosses didn’t tank. Although ticket counts didn’t go through the roof.

Now, we’ve got dinosaurs on cleanup tours and a bunch of acts with MySpace pages that almost no one wants to see. Would you say we’ve got a problem? I would.

The labels are completely lost. Rather than returning to their core revenue stream, selling recorded music, they’re trying to hone in on the acts’ other revenue. The labels are marginalizing themselves. What did Craig Kallman say? Atlantic will sign fewer acts in the future and hype them more? Isn’t this what Guy Hands is saying too? Have they never heard of cable television and its infinite choice? That you need a product for every niche?

And radio… Stations aren’t interested in the future, they don’t want to change, they just want to sell a ton of ad time and run the value of their outlets down to zero.

So who needs to break acts? The concert business. But all the concert business cares about is dollars. It’s the carney business one step removed.

There’s no investment in the future. It’s about how much money can we grab now. And as bad as the promoters are, the agents are worse. They want their ten percent. They make deals, they don’t turn them down.

So this giant edifice has been built to fuck the customer in the ass. No one cares about the customer.

Not only are the ticket prices too high, and the venues too big, there’s the dreaded TicketMaster fees. And the public doesn’t know that it’s not really TM’s fault, but the rest of the industry’s, which wants more hidden profits, in the case of the promoters, not commissioned by the acts. It’s like breakage clauses in recording contracts. It’s all historical and unfathomable to the public.

But now we’re selling tickets more than a year in advance? What’s the rationale? Do you know what your schedule is in January ’09? Of course not!

Why don’t you put your money down on Cornell, so your fourteen year old can attend when he finishes high school. And if he’s not accepted? Well, Cornell will give you your money back, sans interest.

That’s what this ticket sale is about. Not making sure there’s enough money in the marketplace, but collecting a sum, that in the aggregate, throws off millions of dollars in interest, which TM, AEG and Celine can split. No harm, no foul, right? What’s the interest on $500 anyway? Not even the TM fee!

Do they think this cumulative screwing of the public will have no long term effect?

Just ask GM. Or Ford. Never mind Chrysler. Not only are they a shadow of their former selves, they might even go out of business. All because they produced a shoddy product the public didn’t want. Took almost forty years, but now Toyota is the world’s number one brand. Because they last! If you invest $25,000 in an automobile, don’t you want a good return for your money?

But the concert industry will say there’s only one Celine Dion.

Let’s just assume that’s true. Where’s the next Celine? I can’t see her. What is the industry going to do after she’s gone, after the Stones no longer tour. When Bono spends more time as a VC at Elevation Partners. Well, the record labels are going to generate new hit acts. Huh? That ain’t happening. But that’s the concert industry, fuck the future, give us our money now!

The reason people don’t complain about video game prices is because the games are good! Not only do the CDs only have one good track, when you go to the show you’re treated like shit. Charged ad infinitum, for everything from parking to refreshments to merch. All overpriced. And unless you’re very close, the sound isn’t good and you’re watching on the big screen. You can say you were there, but soon being somewhere else is gonna give you more cred.

You can’t screw your customers for years and expect no backlash. Ask the major labels if you need chapter and verse. The concert industry is the custodian of music now. And believing that you can’t steal a concert, they’re just raping and pillaging, as if they’re immune.

No one’s immune. Not even Microsoft.

Then again, Bill Gates is a hell of a lot smarter than those inhabiting the concert business. And he added a ton of value to the computing experience. What value have TM, the agents and the promoters added to the show? The show is about the act. And great new acts are scarce. If you don’t see trouble ahead, you’re not looking.

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Bob – Do I have this correct? Celine Dion is asking me to make a commitment NOW to a show on January 30, 2009? She wants the use of my money for 14 months? She wants $1000 a couple up front; $400-$500 in the middle – for the privilege of locking in more than a year out? I couldn’t tell you what I’m doing 14 days from now, let alone On Jan. 30, 2009. Total insanity. -Debbie

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You think that Clapton and Winwood at 250.00 is a scream. Well it only gets better. I received an email today from AEG notifying me that I am a preferred member (don’t know how) and I am eligible to purchase advance tickets to see Celine Dion on October 20, 2008 for prices ranging from $62 – $512. Shit, if I cared, which I don’t, those greedy bastards would have my money, perhaps as much as 500 + bucks times the amount of friends I want to go with, in their coffers for near a year – multiply that by 20,000 bums in seats. That’s greed? What like Celine needs a guarantee that she will sell out the ice rinks – NOT! Crazy crazy industry!

Garrett

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Celine Dion…..Vancouver Canada, Next October….
$82.00 to 520.00. She and Rene can go fuck themselves.

Darrin Buchanan
www.rocksquad.net
Vancouver, BC