Mailbag

From: Dayna Goldfine Geller/Goldfine Productions

Subject: PETER ASHER: Everywhere Man — THANK YOU!

Date: May 14, 2026 at 10:13:37?PM PDT

Dear Bob,

WOW… I can’t tell you how much your piece on our Peter Asher film meant to two VERY indie filmmakers up here in San Francisco.

Thanks for taking a gamble and watching despite your initial reluctance.

EVERYWHERE MAN was a labor of love in every sense of the word. Ironically, it was inspired on a long-ago night back in 2012 when an old friend called me to say he had an extra ticket to see a new cabaret show starring his friend, Linda Ronstadt’s ex-manager and producer, Peter Asher. Truth be told, at the time I had absolutely no idea who Peter Asher was [2012 was four years before my husband and filmmaking partner, Dan Geller and I began work on our first music doc, HALLELUJAH: Leonard Cohen, a Journey, a Song.  So we weren’t yet immersed in that  world]. 

Nope… I didn’t grab that spare ticket to see Peter Asher, I went to the show with the much more mercenary goal of getting to meet Linda Ronstadt, who so generously provided the soundtrack of my high school years.

Long story short, I happily seated myself beside Linda, the lights went down, Peter and his small band took the stage, and within 5 minutes I was smitten by him, the music and the cultural moments incapsulated in his life story. I went home that night and told Dan that I’d just witnessed the perfect subject for a documentary.

Flash forward several years… Dan and I had become friends with Linda, and she mentioned that Peter was returning to SF with his Memoir show. This time Dan came too, Linda introduced us to Peter after the show and we floated the idea of this documentary. Peter being Peter, the first thing he said was, “But aren’t you making a film about Leonard Cohen? I’m certainly no Leonard Cohen!” 

Okay… that’s probably lots more than you wanted to know, but it’s all to say that your words mean the world to us!

With gratitude, Dayna Goldfine (and Dan Geller)

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From: Ed Trunk

Subject: Re: More Blue Dot Fever

Date: May 15, 2026 at 8:13:15?PM PDT

Hey Bob

In my view there is a huge part of this being overlooked; flex pricing. It was only going to be a matter of time before the public figured out to just wait till the day before or day of a show and they would get in way cheaper in many cases. It didn’t take long for people to start talking to others sitting next to them and find out they paid way more , or way less, than they did. It doesn’t feel great to find out the ticket you paid $400 for the person next to you got for $59 that day. 

There are now sites dedicated to showing the price drops. 

If more and more people wait it out, how will anyone really know how the show is ultimately going to do? People are figuring out most shows are going to drop , 4 for $100 deals, or in casinos and other settings free / papered tickets. Sure there’s a segment of people for a hot show that will have FOMO and buy 8 months out. But even many of those shows  drop close to the actual date. Especially if holds and unsold VIPs come available. I hear about it all the time on my radio show from fans. To me it’s a huge issue promoters are going to have to figure out. Because more and more fans are every day. 

Eddie Trunk

TrunkNation SiriusXM Radio:

M-F 3-5P ET Faction Talk 103

Monday’s 5-8P ET 39 Hair Nation

Eddie Trunk Rocks FM/Syndicated

The Eddie Trunk Podcast 

www.EddieTrunk.com 

@EddieTrunk X, IG, FB (page)

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Subject: Re: Blue Dot Fever

Date: May 13, 2026 at 10:16:24?PM PDT

I promoted a show with Bill Cosby 25 years ago that came out of the gate very slow. Agent called and said he wanted to cancel. Got Cosby on a conference all to discuss how we announce the cancellation. Do we say “Scheduling difficulties,” etc? “Tell them the truth!,” Cosby bellowed. “Tell them tickets didn’t sell!” So there you have it. For obvious reasons, Cosby may not be the best example to illustrate this, but it was actually refreshing to hear an artist be honest about it and when you actually tell the truth, the story goes away.

Brian Martin

Martin Media

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Subject: Re: More Blue Dot Fever

Date: May 15, 2026 at 5:40:20?PM PDT

Bob,

I remember waiting to get into a show at Winterland, and a guy was going down the line asking for a penny from each person hoping to get the 400 pennies he needed for a ticket. After the doors opened I saw him inside.

David Epstein

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From: Chip Lovitt

Subject: Re: More Blue Dot Fever

Date: May 16, 2026 at 6:49:48?AM PDT

Yeah everybody I know who saw Bruce Springsteen paid $500 for a seat. Or to stand for three hours. My son included.  I blame myself. I should have never let him hear the Tunnel of Love LP. 

Sent from my iPhone

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From: Don VanCleave

Subject: Re: TikTok

Date: May 11, 2026 at 12:18:11?PM PDT

Tik Tok is key for my bands. While you can’t engineer virality, you can use interesting content to boost songs and squeeze out more streaming. Especially album tracks that are not the single. Film a great 6 or 10 second piece of content. If it connects all of a sudden, the sound will mushroom into hundreds of user videos and the corresponding effect on Spotify is instant. You just can’t get that on any other platform. We love it!

Don VanCleave

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From: MICHAEL ROSS

Subject: Vince Gill

Date: May 8, 2026 at 12:52:13?PM PDT

Hi Bob

Great interview with Vince Gill. Met him and interviewed him a couple of times in Nashville where he is known to some as St Vince. He got that nickname for being such a great guy. He had what was known as as the Vince Gill pawnshop where down on their luck guitarists could sell him guitars for a fair price and then buy them back for the same price when they got back on their feet. 

____________________________________________

From: Pat O’Connor

Subject: Fwd: Sony Buys Recognition

Date: May 11, 2026 at 2:42:39?PM PDT

Hi Bob,

One note regarding Primary Wave and their new releases … they released Robert Randolph’s  “Preacher Kids” album last year and won a 2026 Grammy – Robert’s first Grammy win after 6 nominations with his prior major. The album was definitely amazing, but I also think Justin, Larry, and Dominic at Primary Wave, and Jason at Red Light, did an incredible job in making the release significant, probably more than a major might have been able to do. I’m sure it also helped to have Robert out there crushing it live … he’s as good as it gets.

It feels like Primary Wave has really established themselves as more than just a force as a rights-holder, and really more of a new paradigm for the music industry. Always refreshing to see good guys doing well.

Keep the faith Bob … Keep doing well, God bless, GOGETEM, and keep being YOU!

Pat

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From: tom werman

Subject: Re: Mailbag

Date: April 30, 2026 at 10:04:03?AM PDT

A brief addendum to the nice emails about Nick Lowe —

Gregg Geller brought us backstage to meet Nick following his show at Tanglewood; he remains the most courteous, hospitable, modest and accommodating artist I’d met in 30 years of introductions.

Tom Werman

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From: Jerry J. Sharell

Subject: Re: NYT 30 Greatest Living Songwritrers

Date: April 30, 2026 at 3:05:46?PM PDT

These lists always cause such controversy. Jimmy Webb? Stevie Nicks? Billy Joel? Pretty shocking omissions. And of course, I’ll always fight for the magnificent Barry Manilow. Even Now, Could It Be Magic, It’s A Miracle, Copa, This One’s for You, his 2AM Paradise Cafe album, his broadway musical, Harmony…? Is his schmaltz schmaltzier than a (brilliant) Diane Warren ballad? (Unbreak My Heart vs Even Now.) Is his kitsch kitschier than Newman? (I Love LA vs Copacabana.) I want to yell at critics to get off their high horse and for other “cool” artists to come out as “Fanilows” – and show their appreciation for the stellar music creator and insanely exceptional entertainer he is.

Jerry J. Sharell

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From: Wim Reijnen

Subject: Re: Buying Gas

Date: April 29, 2026 at 9:08:28?PM PDT

Hi Bob,

Thanks for your column on gas prices.Due to the war, the gas prices obviously are going through the roof globally too. At my place in Belgium I’m paying 1.829 euro a liter, which equals to USD 8.09 a gallon. Six miles down the road in The Netherlands it currently stands at USD 11.15 a gallon, causing traffic jams at the Belgian gas stations at the border with the Dutch swinging by for substantial savings.

Best regards,

Wim Reijnen

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From: Frazier Music Group

Subject: Long time my friend

Date: May 6, 2026 at 5:08:21?PM PDT

Bob

I’ll just let you know for the record that Bailey Zimmerman wasn’t found by “some guy”.  It was me and I brought to Chief as a strategic partner and Co-Managed him 50/50 with The Core and with 10th Street where I was a JV partner

I discovered him and it was me who got his record deal offer started with Jason Flom. We ultimately signed with Elektra / Warner after a bidding war.

Scott Frazier

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From: Steven Ehrlick

Subject: Herb Alpert tour at 91 years old!

Date: May 16, 2026 at 11:57:01?AM PDT

Hi Bob. Months ago you wrote about this show and encouraged your readers not to miss Her Alpert if he came to your town. Alpert played Massey Hall last night. I took my wife and step sons (17), a birthday present to myself. We were blown away. It was so good and the audience loved it. I think I remember you saying that Alpert wasn’t considered cool back then and I agree, he wasn’t. I didn’t buy his albums or singles. And yet, like you, I knew every one of his songs. Late to the party but I’m a converted fan.

Thanks for the tip.

Regards,

Steven Ehrlick

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From: randy badazz alpert

Subject: Re: Fwd: Herb Alpert tour at 91 years old!

Date: May 16, 2026 at 3:55:00?PM PDT

Thank You for this nice note Bob…  FYI, I spoke with Herb a couple months ago about winding down at the end of this year and he said, “What about Europe in 2027?  Herb are you sure?  Yes, let’s explore some other countries.   So, 10 days ago I confirmed Herb for a 5 city tour of the UK in May 2027 that includes Royal Albert Hall. Herbie will be 92.  Am now looking into Germany, France, The Netherlands and maybe in June, Japan and Australia.  Crazy. 

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Subject: Re: The Peter Asher Movie

The first rock concert I went to as a teeny-bopper was Peter & Gordon at the Alexandria Roller Rink in Virginia.  Decades later I was backstage at a Linda Ronstadt concert in Santa Barbara with my boyfriend (later husband) and Peter hit on me. My life had come full circle.

France Komoroske

Willie Nile At McCabe’s

How early did I have to get there to get a good seat?

Then again, how many people were going to show up to see a 78 year old act who never had a breakthrough hit?

A full house.

That was surprising.

But not as surprising as Willie Nile’s show.

I bought that first Willie Nile album, I know who he is, but I’d never seen him until last night.

Now I get it.

And I don’t think you can capture his act on wax.

It’s not that he doesn’t have the songs or the voice, it’s just the energy, the sheer emotion and joy of his performance, cannot be set and preserved in amber. You have to be there.

Has the entire script flipped?

It used to be all about getting a record deal. But now unless you’re a star, you earn bupkes making records. And the truth is you didn’t make much before, but at least the record company kept you alive for the length of the contract, could be up to five albums on Warner Brothers, even if you never had a hit.

But today you can’t even get signed if you don’t have a hit that you created by yourself, online. And the goal of the record company is to blow you and said hit up. And it pushes all these buttons that don’t have the same effect they used to. And if you don’t make music in defined categories, they don’t even want to know your name.

So supposedly Willie has a band, which he took on the Rock Legends Cruise, that he performs with elsewhere, but this was a solo performance. And to tell you the truth, I think last night’s show would have been hampered by a band, it would dilute the rawness which is part of Nile’s appeal. He’s right there with you.

Nile is a late exponent of the singer/songwriter movement of the seventies, his first album came out in 1980, at the dawn of the MTV era, he was a man out of time.

And speaking of time, listening to Willie I’m thinking more 1962 than 1972. Willie’s songs are usually not about quiet, internal feelings, they lean more towards anthems, they have a message, and that message resonates. Just like in the folk era of the pre-Beatle world.

Now ultimately those folk acts were wiped out if they didn’t have hit singles, most of them were gone by 1965, if not 1964, but that feeling, the emotion, the directness, people still yearn for that. And I don’t know if you can capture that in a recording, which is why SNL is live. When you’re doing it without a net, without the chance of a do-over, it amps up your performance, the audience can see you walking the wire.

Now I’d be lying if I said I knew Willie’s repertoire. But the mark of a good songwriter is the listener can get their songs the first time through, and that’s how it was last night. I caught the lyrics, they resonated.

So Willie hits the stage and…

He keeps strumming the guitar, there’s no downtime, no air, he just keeps that pick going down, never up, to the degree where he kept ripping up picks. But that meant the fever pitch never faded. Willie would be telling stories between numbers, but this ain’t “Alice’s Restaurant,” it’s not about the patter, but the stories, the intros, do add flavor.

So I’m sitting there getting it and I think the only thing standing between Willie Nile and stardom is people seeing and hearing him in performance. It’s a double-edged sword, without a hit no one will come, but just trying to write singles in the form of those in the hit parade doesn’t work either.

Not that Nile’s songs are obtuse, anything but. Most could be covered by anybody. But they’re not moon in June, they’ve got more substance than that.

So I guess you’d say Nile is a troubadour, the essence of that word, he travels from town to town, delivering his message. Not expecting a sudden conflagration, instant notice…

As a matter of fact, Willie got that, a review of his show at Kenny’s Castaways by Robert Palmer of the “New York Times” that got the record companies calling. And I’m sure what Palmer saw was amazing, but how long was Clive going to stay on board without a hit?

So Willie still lives in a fifth floor walkup in Greenwich Village. He used to lament the climb, but now he believes it’s contributing to his health. And his dad is the 19th oldest male in America, at age 108 1/2. So maybe Willie’s got a long road ahead of him.

But maybe not, you never know.

So you keep on keepin’ on.

Only most don’t. They go back to school, they go to work at daddy’s company, after all you’ve got to have a roof over your head and food on the table and…

Now because the means of production and distribution are readily accessible to all today, the world is littered with those who are ultimately wannabes, who would have been squeezed out of the system previously, who just aren’t good enough.

And I’m sitting there listening to Willie and thinking he’s definitely good enough.

And he’s got no airs. When asked to be on the Legends Cruise…he questioned himself, is he a legend? But he went over big, has been asked back at more money, because if you see this guy…

If you want to energize your affair, make it memorable, hire Willie Nile to play a few numbers. He’ll wake the crowd up, get them singing along, get them believing. Not by playing a star, but by playing music.

I’m not telling you to pull up his albums on Spotify. I’m telling you if Willie Nile is playing anywhere near you to go and see him.

You won’t be disappointed.

But more than that you’ll be inspired, you’ll marvel, you’ll say THIS IS IT!

And it is.

30 Greatest Living American Songwriters-SiriusXM This Week

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2026/magazine/greatest-american-songwriters-alive.html

This is a live show, call in with your take.

Tune in Saturday May 16th to Faction Talk, channel 103, at 4 PM East, 1 PM West.

Phone #: 844-686-5863

If you miss the episode, you can hear it on demand on the SiriusXM app. Search: Lefsetz

More Blue Dot Fever

1

Concerts are now a luxury item.

The heyday of classic rock is over, when boomers and gen-X’ers went to multiple shows a year, sometimes a month, for under ten dollars. Now you don’t go to a show on a whim, it’s a splurge.

As for the economics of the country, I point you to this story in today’s “New York Times”: 

“Consumers Spent More in April Despite High Gas Prices – Retail sales rose 0.5 percent despite higher prices for gas, food and other goods. But there are signs consumers are under some strain.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/14/business/retail-sales-consumer-spending-april.html

So if you’re pointing to the general financial situation of the country for a decline in ticket sales, that doesn’t fly.

Then again, if concerts are luxury goods…

That market is hazy. Luxury goods sales have been down for two reasons, higher prices and the collapse of the market in China. Then again, Burberry’s sales are up, but they were way down previously. But LVMH just sold off Marc Jacobs, trying to wrest control of a portfolio that became so large as to be unmanageable, at least in the eyes of investors.

So…

This is not the way the concert business was perceived in the past. Acts started in clubs, then graduated to theatres and ultimately to arenas, assuming they had success. And success was driven by the efforts of the record company promoting your tunes and the quality of your live show and its connection with fans.

But now, successful acts start in arenas. Are Olivia Dean tickets so hot because she’s such a great performer? No, she’s barely worked in America, and sales are based on the records.

But let’s go back to the club level. Clubs are challenged, and one of the main problems is attendees don’t want to consume alcohol. Is this a change in mores, or price?

I

 point you to this article in the “Wall Street Journal”: 

“Drinks Are So Expensive That Grown-Ups Are Pregaming Like They Did in College – Americans are turning to the tradition to stretch their dollars—and their buzz”

https://www.wsj.com/lifestyle/drinks-are-so-expensive-that-grown-ups-are-pregaming-like-they-did-in-college-825aab34

The alcohol tastes the same whether you consume it at home or in the club, arguably the drink is superior at home, where you can pour more alcohol to mixer. So why not tank up before you go?

But you can’t see the band at home. Twenty five years have taught us that video broadcasts of concerts are not a significant business, in other words, you’ve got to be there.

It’s all about being there, but where do you have to be?

2

In addition to rising costs, for both performer and ticket-buyer, the concert business now resembles the country at large, especially on the internet, where winner takes all. Today people just don’t consume the talent that comes to their market, they’d rather travel to experience those acts they really want to see.

You see the internet allows for a million voices, but in a competitive marketplace, where everything sits right alongside another, a few stand out, and they get all the dollars. No one has been able to compete with Google or Amazon yet. Sure, you can search on Bing or DuckDuckGo, but very few people do. And when you buy from Amazon…you trust the company and delivery is fast and cheap and… Do you really need something almost as good from a less known competitor? That’s how it is in music, even if you could save a buck or two, do you want to see any but the best acts?

But what are the best acts?

That world has changed too.

MTV created a monoculture in the eighties. If you were on MTV, everybody knew your name around the world, there was demand. So if you were one of the few acts that reached that pinnacle, whose videos were shown, you would sell tickets. How many? That’s another question. But once again, forty years ago you started small and cheap to test the waters, now you go full bore.

And if there is demand, if people click with the act, there’s no price that is too high for a ticket.

But the ubiquity of the pre-internet era has been lost.

Legacy media keeps trumpeting acts in the Spotify Top 50 that ultimately have a small footprint, most people don’t know them. Then again, there are a hundred million more people in America than there were fifty years ago, and the buildings are not getting any bigger. So when you sell out arenas you believe demand is massive and wide, when this is oftentimes untrue. Whereas in the past…

Forget the classic rock acts, Coldplay had video hits before that paradigm died twenty-odd years ago. They haven’t had a universal tune since, but they sell out stadiums all over the world, it’s nearly unfathomable.

Then there are hitmakers du jour who are hot and sell a lot of tickets and there’s this misimpression that demand is deep and wide and they move to larger buildings and find out the demand is not there.

And, in a hit-based market, hits matter. In the album era of yore, you built fans over multiple LPs and tours. Sure, fans wanted to hear the hits, but they wanted more than that. And those acts can still sell tickets today. Whereas most of the Spotify Top 50…if there are no more hits ticket sales drop off.

3

So it’s a business. And at the club level, it’s challenged. We keep hearing in the U.K. and U.S. that clubs must be saved. But when was the last time a band made it on a purely live basis, from demand in clubs all the way to arenas? Of course there are exceptions, but the average punter does not want to go to a club to see a developing act. They’d rather pay much more to see a hit act which they are desirous of seeing.

And record companies don’t subsidize club tours like they used to, they’re not convinced these sell records/streams, which is how they make their money. If you start small, you may stay small.

Now as we start moving up the food chain, and the truth is the definition of these venues has changed, what were once called theatres are now called clubs, but… Those who can sell a thousand tickets give or take, usually their recording income is small, so they depend upon the road. And therefore they return to markets much more frequently than they used to, they need the money. And none of these shows are cheap, even if they’re not exorbitantly expensive, but at what point do you say you’ve seen the act enough at these prices?

And when you get to the arena level… No one goes who isn’t into the act. No one goes on a whim.

So there’s always demand. People want to go to shows.

But live music? That used to be a staple of society, ubiquitous. But to a great degree it’s been replaced by records. People would rather hear the hits than wannabes doing inferior covers or playing unknown originals. So the concept of going to the bar/club to hear a new band… The demand is just not there like it was in the old days.

4

So, as I’ve said previously, there’s a seemingly unlimited demand, at high prices, for desirable acts. And then you’ve got the problem that perceived value is so high that tickets, although expensive, are UNDERPRICED!

But if you look at concerts like luxury goods… They’re even more exotic than luxury goods, because when the show is over all you’ve got is your memories, you still don’t have your designer handbag.

This is not like yesteryear, where an act could be regionally successful, sell tickets somewhere and almost none in another place. If you’ve made it to the arena level, the internet has spread word across the nation, business is either strong, or weak.

And all the metrics of yore are useless. Past history is helpful, but not definitive. The marketplace can change just that fast. And it has always been fluid, but if you built an act up over time, via multiple albums and tours, you didn’t expect demand to evaporate, it could decline, but not go to zero. But today, was the act just the flash of the moment?

And was the moment more press-driven than music-driven, was there momentary mania?

And then there are the acts whose fan base is rabid, but narrow. Like BTS and the rest of the KPop acts. Their fans are diehard, but seemingly everybody else shrugs. And for all the people dying to get into the Eras show, there are those who wouldn’t attend a Taylor Swift show even if it was free. And sure, there have always been people who don’t like certain acts, but the big acts had much more mindshare, you’d heard their hits, now sometimes people reject acts based on image, they’ve never even heard the music.

5

So how much demand is out there?

Well I ask you, other than recent hitmakers, how many acts have a history, a long career of success? We can point to Justin Bieber, Lady Gaga. But if we cast the net wider we oftentimes find acts had a moment, and is that enough to sustain demand? Probably not, not in these venues at these prices.

Nobody used to balk at the price of concert tickets. They weren’t that expensive, they were not a luxury good. But now, desirable show prices are stratospheric, you really have to ask yourself if it’s worth it.

And the truth is it’s worth a lot to many people.

6

So, what do we know…

Is there really blue dot fever? Well, it’s hard to calculate demand, so many shows go up, the marketplace is muddied with multiple offers. So on sale demand might be high, but if you don’t go clean immediately, there’s a good chance tickets will sell close to the date, or not. In between, there will be a trickle.

But it appears that the economy might not be having an effect on people’s spending. Unless you consider concerts a luxury good. And you can’t buy a Rolex at retail, the market is that hot, like it is for today’s superstars, but the rest of the high-priced wares… They’re a stretch financially, and many people do not want to make that stretch. Furthermore, how important is it to have a luxury good? The ace in the hole for concerts is they’re a unique experience, one and done, which come with bragging rights, but they are not the only experience that delivers this.

So, the economy’s effect on ticket demand…it’s murky.

But it’s clear that demand is sky high, driving ticket prices up, for an ever fewer number of acts.

And people have unlimited cash available to see these acts, but they may only want to see these acts.

And as far as building new acts that sustain, that become legacy acts, that’s become harder than ever to do. If for no other reason than it’s harder than ever to reach people in the marketplace, never mind on a regular basis.

Now in the old days, prior to the blue dot availability on Ticketmaster, the public had no information. We can now judge ticket demand just like we can judge the demand for recordings via the statistics on Spotify. This is the information era, and we’re not going back to a more opaque world.

As for cancellations, acts have always lied/made excuses when tickets don’t sell. It’s just that when this happens now, especially to more than one act, word of these cancellations can spread online and gain traction.

So…

7

The concert business has changed. Ticket prices are never coming down, because of the demand. As for lowering them for shows that aren’t doing boffo at the b.o…do you really want to spend hours listening to an act you don’t love, who might only have one track you know? No.

So there’s a peak. How many acts are at that peak and what is the exact demand.

And then there’s the issue of ticket price.

If the demand is there, which it is for many acts, the issue in pricing is not how to make it lower, but how do you make it high enough to squeeze out the secondary market, because despite all the consumer complaints, fans end up going, just to be in the building. You need to ignore the bitching. People bitch about the price of cars, but once they’ve spent north of 50k, most people will testify how much they love their automobile.

So the bottom of the market is ever more hollow.

And there are wannabe superstars who are playing bigger buildings than they should and pricing tickets too high.

But then there are acts that could play seemingly ad infinitum. Look at Harry Styles and Madison Square Garden. He’s doing thirty shows, with some tickets priced as low as fifty bucks. But it’s easy to spend four digits in the secondary market. And, once again, this is for THIRTY SHOWS!

The acts of yore never did thirty show residencies. Demand was not there. There were other acts of an equal status touring and the act would probably come to your neighborhood if you wanted to see them anyway. But how many Harry Styles’s are there? People are traveling from across the country, across the world to go… Forget ticket prices, they may just be a fraction of the overall spend.

They need to be in the building just that much.

Doesn’t matter that you don’t need to be in the building, that you don’t want to pay those prices, enough people do.

But when you go down the food chain, many people do not.

And the irony is when you go down far enough, tickets are not very price sensitive, people just don’t want to go. They see it as an off brand show, not a must-go. It’s the difference between a BMW or Mercedes and a Cadillac. Remember when Cadillac ruled the road? No more, the German cars were always better but now everybody knows and would rather spend more for something that’s a better driving experience that will impress people. Doesn’t matter what Cadillac constructs, it’s too late, they’ve squandered the company’s good will.

It’s the same with acts, assuming they had any good will to begin with.