Another Slow Summer?
It might not be too early to call the summer of 2011 a disaster.
Christmas spending and a burgeoning stock market seemed to indicate the contrary, but the problem is the acts. Either people don’t want to see ’em or they’ve burned out the audience to such an extent that there’s no reason to go again.
I love Def Leppard, but what have they done lately that makes them think people want to spend $400 to sit in the first row or pay $150 for a seat twenty five rows back?
The sheds are artistically bankrupt. They’re like bowling alleys with busted pinsetters, expecting people to come like lemmings to drink overpriced beer and eat crummy food at the snack bar. Hell, the experience sucked when the acts were young and good!
Level ’em. There’s no reason for them to exist. Few can sell that many tickets and you just can’t feel the music. Indoors is better.
And indoors people are loath to overpay to see acts from decades past or those who will be unknown seemingly minutes from now.
This is a business so out of whack with reality it’s a head-scratcher.
The acts are delusional, thinking they matter when all they really want to do is support their lifestyle and the audience knows it.
And Live Nation is a public company so it can’t exercise its wrath and impose discipline on the market by saying no.
We’re building new touring acts. Mumford & Sons is a good example. But they underplay and undercharge, what a concept. Hell, that’s why paperless is good, for acts with real fans, who want said fans up close and personal at the show, as opposed to mercenary performers who just want the largest gross.
MTV is dead.
And so is radio.
The only format that means anything, Top Forty, can’t sell tickets.
We’re starting all over.
If you’re old you’ve got to charge less and play small, as opposed to the Stewart/Nicks disaster.
Give Grace Slick credit. Sometimes you’ve just got to give up and retire.
And if you think these Top Forty flavors of the moment are the savior of the touring industry you probably bought a ticket to see Jordin Sparks.
There is good music out there. But those in the industry looking for an instant buck don’t want to support it. They want the easy way out. They want instant stardom, they want to get paid, it’s like everybody’s working for Smith-Corona and they’re stunned that no one wants the old typewriter and are banking their economic future on the sale of bulky PCs in an era of iPads.
We watched this movie with the labels. We watched them die over the course of ten years. Is Live Nation next?
