Back when concert tickets and albums were almost the same price, I’d buy the new record before I went to the show. That’s what would happen. The band would go on the road and play most of the new album and a few old hits. If you didn’t know the new material, you were lost in a cacophony of sound. Shit, how great is hearing unfamiliar music live? Pretty shitty for most folk.

Therefore, when people go to the show today, they only want to hear the hits. They don’t want to hear anything new. And when you do fire up your new compositions, they immediately go to the bathroom, got get a drink. New material is like the obligatory drum solo of yore, signal for a break.

Therefore, every act that is not a flash in the pan is an oldies act. The customer, paying an overinflated price for a ducat, feels he DESERVES to hear the hits. That’s why you charged him so much, right? That’s why your new music must come with the ticket, it must be included, just like the TicketMaster fees, only this time the charge will be built in, it will be transparent to the end user.

I know, I know, you can’t do this. You need a big SOUNDSCAN NUMBER!

No you don’t. Maybe your dying label does, but you don’t. That’s an old scorecard, for a dying game. If anything, you should be interested in your BigChampagne numbers, how many people are trading your tracks. That’s the true indicator of popularity.

If all the money is in touring, why are you trying to sell your music? Doesn’t it make more sense to give it away, in the hope that people will have a better concert experience?

You want to grow. But your audience won’t let you. They don’t want to hear anything new. But if the $100 ticket came with the new material, the audience would be motivated to play the new stuff, in ANTICIPATION of the show. After a while, this will become the new behavior, people will know to listen to the free new music, because that’s what the act is going to play!

Even the Eagles. How many hits do they have? That’s all people want to hear. But the band finally made a new album, they’d like to stretch out on stage. How do they keep the audience from being disinterested? By making sure each and every customer has the new music in ADVANCE!

Now the Eagles are not a perfect example. They got a huge check from Wal-Mart. But that paradigm is going to dry up, not quite as quickly as Radiohead’s name your own price scheme, but quickly. Because physical formats are on their way out. It would be like Wal-Mart selling Smith-Corona typewriters cheaply in order to get you in the store. Huh?

If you’re a touring act, you’ve got to stop thinking of your new music as a revenue source. Rather, it’s an investment in your career, its vitality, its longevity. The key is to get it in as many hands as possible so your sphere of influence, your customer base, doesn’t shrink, but GROWS!

It’s not like a classic act can get any significant radio airplay. As for appearing on "Today", "Ellen" and "Leno"…a great percentage of the target audience doesn’t watch those shows. And, those that do, housewives in the case of the morning and afternoon shows, are they really going to get a babysitter and invest hundreds of dollars to come see you? No, chances are your audience is those not watching the tube, those who leave the house, those with a LIFE! How are you going to reach these people with your new music?

As it is, you’re announcing your tour almost a year before it happens, getting all that revenue up front, before anybody else does… If you give away the music with the ticket, the audience has a long time to become familiar with it! Hell, the dropping of the album and the on sale date happen simultaneously!

I hope this is Live Nation’s plan. They’re not gearing up to be a full service label, are they? Hiring promotion people, et al? Just record these albums and give them away!

Maybe not a complete album. Maybe just the four or five tracks you plan to play in concert.

It’s a new world. It’s time to adapt to it. The goal is to build from the ground up. Do everything you can to get fans exposed to your new material and bond them. Don’t worry so much about the casual buyer. He’s hard to reach, he probably won’t buy a ticket, never mind a t-shirt, you can’t make enough money on him. Milk your core. Via a symbiotic relationship. You don’t get paid for TV. It’s too hard and expensive to get on the radio. Cut out the middle man, go directly to the fan!