She got distracted by the big screen.

Yup, she’s up there singing, live, that’s why the NFL picked her, because she’s got the pipes, and overhead, on the gigantic big screens, credit Jerry Jones, he knows the best place for football is television, which is why he installed the humongous sets inside his new stadium, they’re showing images of soldiers in Afghanistan and a celebrity with a tear dripping down his face and…Christina looked up and lost her place.

Would YOU lose your place?

OF COURSE NOT!

But you haven’t got the chance.  And if you think you can deliver under pressure, you’re sorely mistaken.  Singing in front of the mirror is very different from performing in front of thousands, never mind the whole world, which is why we’re wowed by these athletes, who’ve been perfecting their skills for decades, just like the best musicians.

Now what?  Is she just gonna hide?

It’s an interesting country we live in.  Everybody’s got an opinion, which they’re expressing online.  But those in the public eye, as opposed to those hiding behind aliases online, know that the barbs come fast and furious, and they hurt. Everybody’s jealous of your position and perks but you want to protest you’re just human.  Get over it.  Bring your humanity out to play.

Yes, as much as America likes to criticize, it likes to forgive.  Christina’s got to come out of that hotel room and tell her story. Let the love pour over her.  And believe me, it will.  With a modicum of hatred, that’s for sure, but as stated above, that comes with the territory.

I got divorced, I’m a single mother, I’m trying to find my way and I just fucked up on worldwide television.  God, I feel awful.

I should have practiced, I should have focused.  It’s my fault.  I screwed up.  This is what happened, I’m not making excuses, but I believe the public deserves an explanation.

That last point is bullshit.  The public does not deserve an explanation.  But the modern star knows the key to credibility, the key to ongoing success, is access.  If you don’t humble yourself and come down from the mountaintop and interact with your fans, you’re destined to a declining audience.

Don’t do that.  Learn from the new and developing acts.  Your fans are your friends.  Give them information, enable them, they’ll help you.

Christina needs to allow her fans to defend her.

And then she gives back with some live performances, where she both makes fun of herself but shows her true talent.  Not only late night TV, but morning too.  There’s no such thing as overexposure when you’re apologizing.  Well, at some point there is.  When you feel the public is now on your side, to protest further is to fall on your sword to no avail.

Then you’ve got to put tickets to your next tour on sale right away.  Where you underplay the market.  And sign autographs. And bask in the love, the forgiveness.

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P.S. In my previous data dump on Live Nation I left out tons, both because it didn’t fit and I didn’t remember it at the time.  But I want to tell you a few things:

1. Many of the acts are scared.  So they’re teaming up with other acts to create attractive packages.  This is the summer of value.  Stars don’t want to play to empty seats.

2. It’s all about knowing who your customer is.  I saw the Live Nation data reports.  A fair show is one that sells out because it’s priced properly.

3. Paperless is dead.  Scalpers buy 30% of the tickets, remove them from the equation and you might discover demand for your act is less than the perceived hysteria.  Furthermore, the fan wants to be able to do whatever he wants with the ticket he purchased.  Give it away, sell it to a friend, sell it to a broker.  Paperless might be a percentage of the tickets put on sale, but not all, not in most cases.

It’s an e-commerce play.

Concert promotion is a 4% business.  Do you really think a new competitor is gonna come out of nowhere to give an act all its money?  Hell, it’s 4% if you win, what if you lose?  Which is why we’ve got ticket fees and all sorts of ancillaries.  And Live Nation is a public company, striving to survive, so it had no choice but to build its own ticketing platform, that’s where all the profit is, in ticketing.

When Live Nation broke away from Ticketmaster, when it started selling ducats on livenation.com, it lost 25% of its business.

Slow down.  Let’s restate that.  All you Outbox lovers.  When the shows suddenly didn’t appear on ticketmaster.com, Live Nation lost 25% of its revenue.  If you think that a white label service is a solution to the industry’s problems you probably believe albums are gonna make a comeback.  You’re delusional.  Fred Rosen is all about the buildings, but now it’s all about the fans.  It’s kind of like the record labels believing that their customer was radio and retail.  How well did that work out for them?

Live Nation is fan-centric.

Laugh all you want.  Those Ticketmaster fees?  Live Nation HATES them.  Which is why it’s breaking them out when you initiate a search.  It wants to get rid of them completely.  Just have a final price.  You can break the fees down behind the scenes, unviewable by customers, so acts still won’t commission them, so why do you have to expose the customer to the industry’s dirty laundry?

If you put the fees up front, conversion rate is higher.

As it is with seat maps.

Both of which are Ticketmaster innovations.

It’s all about honesty and trust.  Which the touring industry NEVER believed in.

But those days are changing.

Come on.  You expect a revolution when the promoter gives the act ALL OF THE MONEY?  The only way to get out of this hole is if you find new money.  That’s Live Nation’s mission.  It’s going to get there via data.

And it costs to get data.  A fortune.

Live Nation is the number three e-commerce site already.  Behind Amazon and e-Bay.  It’s about the shopping cart.  Can Ticketmaster’s site be revolutionized so the buying experience is better and the customer can be sold everything from t-shirts to parking?  They’re selling some of that stuff already.  But it’s deep down in the chain, when you actually decide to buy tickets.  But it’s there.  It’s going to come up to the surface.

I just spent the afternoon at the building.  With Rapino and Azoff and Nathan Hubbard.  My head is still spinning.  Boy can Michael talk.  Classic Canadian.

But I learned plenty.

Michael wants to show acts how they can make more money with Live Nation.  Live Nation has gone into partnership with a data company, which reports just how much demand there is.  The company monitors multiple data streams, from tweets to Google searches, and evaluates these to conclude exactly what the demand is.  How many tickets at what price.

Bottom line?

There are going to be twelve price points.  Based on data.

No more Mafioso-style give me five hundred thousand bucks because I’m a star and I deserve it.  Now it’s about showing how much money is in the market.  That tickets need to be cheaper in Cleveland than NYC.

And in the future, prices will move.

But not this summer.

Now it’s about multiple price points.

If you want to sit up front, maybe it’s a thousand bucks.  Maybe only in every other row.

But if you want to sit in the way back, it’s only $32.50.  Demand was through the roof for these cheap seats at the Eagles shows.

The labels are toast.  It’s just a matter of when.

Who’s going to build new acts?

I didn’t get a ton of answers, just a belief that not only is distribution free, but so is recording.  That you can get your stuff out there.  And sponsorships and social networking can spread the word and if you break through, you can play ALL OVER THE WORLD!

Kings Of Leon plays for seven figures in Brazil.  BRAZIL!

Sometimes Vienna is a bigger market for an American act than a North American city.

Once you’ve made it, there’s tons of revenue to book.  Sponsors are clamoring for partnerships with Live Nation acts.  They want to be in business with musicians.

In other words, this is not your father’s music business.

First and foremost you must be fan-centric.  All those companies screwing the customer, hiding behind the facade of intermediaries?  Those days are history.  Truth outs on the Web.  People can see your shenanigans.

Live Nation is a service company.  You go to them and they maximize your revenue.  Based on their investment, they’ve got tools nobody else does.

So where does this leave us?

In an era where musical acts have five year careers.  That Live Nation sells the hell out of.

Oh, we can focus on this year’s touring season.  Rapino is saying no to so many national tours.  They’ll buy some local dates, but not the whole shebang.

There are 600 good shows at the shed.  It’s the extra 300 that killed them last year.  They’ve decentralized buying, it’s a local business.

But the future of Live Nation is in the Ticketmaster website.  Concert promotion is a commodity.  How can Live Nation use the data acquired via the Ticketmaster site to get acts to tour smarter and make more money?

That’s the question.

Live Nation is trying to answer it.

This is not the question JAM is asking.  Nor I.M.P.  Not that Rapino doesn’t think that local promoters are creating niches of profitability.

But in an era of consolidation, you can’t win with the schmooze, you triumph with tech.

Is Live Nation still overpaying?  Is AEG overpaying?

Are acts finally getting smarter?  Are promoters and talent working together as opposed to being adversaries?

We’ll find out this summer.

But that’s not the big story here.  No, we’re now learning the profit is not so much in the nuts and bolts, but the 0’s and 1’s. The data.  The programming.

Is Ticketmaster’s code just too old, like Windows?  And do they need to start over?

Is the interface vision correct?

Can the Live Nation guys live in the real world as opposed to an insular environment that doesn’t let them see the complete landscape?

The future is in the cart.  It’s about knowing from the credit card companies that process Ticketmaster transactions that concert attendees ate at Ruth Chris’s and stayed at the Hampton Inn the night of the show and targeting sales and promotions around these facts.  It’s all in the data.  Which Live Nation is mining.

STOP bitching about the ticket fees.  Live Nation hates them too.

STOP bitching that you can’t get a good seat.  That’s the act’s fault.

DO get ready for ongoing deals and discounts, it’s the way of America, music is no longer different.

The concert industry is moving into the twenty first century.  Finally.  And if you think Live Nation is the enemy, either you’re a direct competitor or an idiot.

Live Nation is your last best hope to make money.

Then again, there are sites coming from nowhere to make headway, like Songkick.

Yes, Live Nation’s competitor is a new site built by young ‘uns, not the sixtysomething promoters who still believe it’s 1975 and it’s just about a good act in the right-sized building.

The fundamentals still count.  But now it’s so much MORE!

It’s still writing  whether you’re doing it on a typewriter or a computer.  But writing can be distributed instantly online, on multiple platforms, and you don’t need to be a brick and mortar publisher to get the message out.

Get it?

I wonder.

I also wonder if Live Nation wins in the end.

But believe me, they’re trying.

They’re looking to Apple and Amazon and Facebook to find their way.

Not Bill Graham.

Pooh-pooh that.  Say what a great show Bill Graham put on.

But he also took all the money.  He could afford to give back.  He ultimately lost out to Michael Cohl because acts are greedy.  Acts are still greedy.  Who can make them the most money?

Let me reinforce, anybody can pay a guarantee and put up a show.  But how do you sell more tickets and merchandise? What are your answers there?

It’s all on the Web baby.  The experience is local and live.  But it starts in the browser.  Get ready.

I’d like to say they were terrible, unwatchable, the end of the world as we know it.

But they were not.

They were a representation of America…yesterday.

Have you noticed the new BEP album has stiffed?  That none of the singles has broken through?  Live by the hit, die by the hit.

But I want to give the NFL credit, for imparting the kiss of death upon musical acts.  If you perform at the Super Bowl, you’re now over.

Oh, don’t tell me about U2 and Prince.  The former was ten years ago and Prince has always functioned in his own sphere.  But if you’re part of the hit parade, once you appear on the Super Bowl, you’re toast.

I will say the BEP were better than the Who.  The Who were just sad.  Like Old Timers Day at Yankee Stadium.  Once upon a time they were great, now it’s just creepy.

But classic rock is dead.

And the Peas are dead too.  Because once the mainstream endorses you, you’re toast.  Especially in an era where Facebook is more important than the "New York Times".

Don’t expect the NFL to be cutting edge.  That’s not their job.  They don’t even want excitement.  Did you see that penalty for excessive celebration?  No man is bigger than the game.  But a great musical act is bigger than radio, bigger than the middlemen, the gatekeepers who are more about money than music.

Great production.  Come on, those green lights and the hearts in red?  It was a modern day version of a marching band.

Did you see the moves?  It’s not like those lame rock stars of yore who practiced their instruments!  Now you’ve got to dance, you’ve got to move.

Wait a minute, that was ten years ago on MTV…

The BEP were entertainment.  They were watchable.  They fit the bill.

But music, when done right, is cutting edge.  It’s about questioning the status quo.  Which is how we know Springsteen and the Who and Petty were done when they were complicit with the NFL.  After all, they’ve got to sell tickets.  To all those old farts who remember the old hits and the young ‘uns who want to see you before you die.

Wave goodbye to the Black Eyed Peas.  Bye-bye!  Fergie will have a solo career, with more peaks than Slash’s.  Will.i.am will always find a gig and I’d say the other two would be forgotten, but they were never known.

Don’t go for the victory lap.  It’s hollow.  In an era where there’s no mainstream, why go for mainstream acknowledgement?

We’re on the cusp of musical breakthroughs unseen since the late sixties.  Everything’s up for grabs.  You’re gonna be wowed, you’re gonna be moved by artists doing it their own way, following their own path, not worried about mainstream acknowledgement.

And this new music is going to rain down money.  And these outside stars will be revered.  Because instead of playing along, they threw out the rule book and started over.

Football is all about the rules.

Music is not.

I hope you enjoyed the spectacle.  I did.

But it was meaningless.

And when done right, music means everything in the world.

"Rolling Stone" is afraid to put Deadmau5 on its cover.  That space is reserved for Elton John.  After all, they’ve got to sell magazines.

I love Elton.  Although reading the story he comes off like an old queen who may be sober but is still spreading too much love, like an inebriated college student.

I was in college when Elton broke.  I just downloaded his ’74 Christmas show today.  You’ve got no idea how good he was.  And maybe if we took away all his money and his toys he could be that good again.  But I’m not sure, because even if Elton wrote another "Your Song" it wouldn’t be a hit, not without beats underneath and Jay-Z toasting in the middle and Alicia Keys adding background reflections.

You see you play to the mainstream, you buy insurance.  There’s too much money involved.

But if you’re young and dumb, if you’re in high school or college, you’re not interested in insurance, you believe you’re going to live forever, you want to surf the zeitgeist.  And it’s this tastemaker population that is truly into music, driving the culture forward, not radio, certainly not record labels, certainly not the big promoters figuring out their platinum packages and Ticketmaster kickbacks.

The biggest story in music last year was the Electric Daisy Carnival.

This did not come out of nowhere.  Pasquale had been promoting for years.  In a territory too dangerous and too marginal for the big boys to care about.  But it was Electric Daisy that sold 185,000 tickets at L.A.’s Coliseum.  Let me inform you, U2 no longer sells every ticket.  But people are clamoring to go hear DJs.

Let’s not talk about the music.  Sure, Elton was about melodies and lyrics, but the shows were always about a good time.  Getting high with your buddies, watching the parade of people, becoming energized by what came out of the speakers.

Those days are back.

We’re living through a revolution in music.  It’s akin to what happened in Tunisia and now Egypt.  The public has had enough and the old powers are shocked and won’t let go.

First it was overpriced CDs.  The Net gutted that paradigm, allowing you to steal or buy the one track you needed.

Then the Top Forty crumbled.  That format might be dominant, but that’s like saying Chi Chi Rodriguez is number one on the Seniors circuit, but he’s not, the leaderboard is peopled by never was duffers and club pros looking for some satisfaction.  Tell me why we should care again?

And Electric Daisy triumphed when everybody else was stiffing.

And "Rolling Stone" won’t risk putting Deadmau5 on its cover.

In the days of yore, MOST PEOPLE had no idea who was on "Rolling Stone"’s cover.  When the magazine was making its name. But now it’s complacent and the youngsters don’t care about it.

The Deadmau5 story is almost unreadable.  Instead of putting an expert on it, they assigned a no name.  If there are facts there, you miss them, because the article’s so poorly written.  Remember when the articles cut like butter?

We are living in unbelievably exciting times.  Everything’s up for grabs.  If you’re making an album for money, give up, almost no one buys one.  Even the vaunted Dr. Dre’s release will probably stiff, be this year’s "Chinese Democracy".

Because you can no longer shoot for the stars.  You’ve got to be grass roots baby.  You’ve got to care about your audience. You’ve got to focus on music.  You’ve got to love the lifestyle more than the money.

http://www.insomniac.com/

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Deadmau5

10/22/10 Congress Theater, Chicago
2 shows
Sold out
8,800 tickets sold
Average ticket price: $42
Gross: $369,600

Deadmau5, Calvin Harris, Toddy B

10/8/10 Austin Music Hall, Austin
1 show
Sold out
3,800 tickets sold
Average ticket price: $39.50
Gross: $150,100

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Tiesto/David Guetta

8/14/10 Hallenstadion, Zurich
1 show
Sold out
14,500 tickets sold
Average ticket price: $84.38
Gross: $1,223,520