Bob-

As a personal manager I have a bit of an ax to grind with you continually blaming the acts for high ticket prices. To some degree we’re all guilty in allowing it to happen, but blaming it on the artists ignores how it ever got that way.

In the "good old days" the artist and the promoter were virtually partners. They made ticket pricing decisions together, marketing decisions together, and they split the gross revenue. Then came the real estate owners-the sheds-and the concept of a "house nut". In essence the building had to make a profit before the artist got a percentage. That led to the artist demanding big guarantees (because you couldn’t look at their expenses). All of a sudden that guy you looked at as your partner was now on the other side of the table and sticking to  "policies" that were dictated by the real estate owners who they were now in partnership with.

Then along came Bob Sillerman and this policy of excluding the artist as your partner became institutionalized from club to arena, countrywide. SFX bought the vertical growth of live concerts i.e. clubs, theatres, sheds, arena’s- to own the results of their work in developing artists at all levels. At the same time they now owned  the concessions, the parking, and a piece of the merchandise. So, as an artist, you are a fool if you didn’t demand an exorbitant guarantee because you had no idea how much money your "partner" was taking from all the other sources. Ticket prices became secondary as a profit center. I once had a promoter thank me profusely for giving him a show he "lost" $25,000 on according to the settlement!

Originally tickets were usually scaled a dollar or two apart but the promoters figured out that if you could do 10,000 people at $15 a ticket you could do 6000 people at $30 and 4,000 at $10 on the lawn, so they would cover their guarantees by increasing the ticket prices for the good seats.   Then of course the lawn seats work their way to $20 and so on.

We can never forget the difference between an entrepreneur who is your partner  and the Corporation that must grow profits quarterly to please their shareholders. Piece by piece we allowed the business to become about the corporation, not the customer. Perhaps the artists and the artist managers were complicit, but their demands for outrageous guarantees came about because the promoters became experts at hiding the revenue. I will never forget Jack Boyle telling me that a Crosby Stills Nash settlement "I don’t make money on concerts, I make money on kickbacks". What he meant was Visa and MasterCard would reduce his rate retroactively at the end of the year, the media would give rebates based on hitting certain dollar targets, the sponsors would pay you after you hit 50 shows etc.-none of which the artist participated in. The artist and the artist manager were essentially cottage industries up against corporate America-except Irving!

So cut the artist a little slack.

bill siddons