We’ve got to get more people to go to more shows.<\/p>\n
It’s not like it’s a hidden lesson.\u00c2\u00a0 The cell phone companies learned this long ago.\u00c2\u00a0 You drop the price, you get more people signed up.\u00c2\u00a0 My ex-wife had a cell phone twenty years ago.\u00c2\u00a0 It cost $1100 and calls were a buck a minute.\u00c2\u00a0 Cell phones were rare.\u00c2\u00a0 You needed to be rich or have a justified use or both.\u00c2\u00a0 Then they dropped the price and now nine year olds have cell phones.\u00c2\u00a0 With texting plans.\u00c2\u00a0 And paid for ringtones. As concert ticket prices keep going up and up, we’re driving potential customers away.<\/p>\n
Jay Scavo said venues should have a season pass.\u00c2\u00a0 And just to prove that he was wrong, Don Strasburg said he’d sell ten season passes to the Fox Theatre for $300.\u00c2\u00a0 Don ended up only offering four.\u00c2\u00a0 For $400.\u00c2\u00a0 And they were gone in an hour and a half.\u00c2\u00a0 Sold purely by a banner ad on the Website.<\/p>\n
No e-mail blast.\u00c2\u00a0 Actually, Don doesn’t send an e-mail blast unless you can win something.\u00c2\u00a0 Usually tickets.\u00c2\u00a0 And if it’s a really slow show, this is how he papers the house.\u00c2\u00a0 Who, other than AEG and the act, would know how many are given away.\u00c2\u00a0 Brilliant idea, but I think the concept of a season pass is even better.<\/p>\n
Michael Rapino says that the average Live Nation customer goes to a show fewer than two times a year. Live music is not a regular habit, but a special event.\u00c2\u00a0 Hard to make your numbers on a once a year transaction.\u00c2\u00a0 The key is to get people to come more.\u00c2\u00a0 And spend more, on merch, peanuts, popcorn, beer…<\/p>\n
I’m not talking about those special sales.\u00c2\u00a0 Discount tickets close to show date, four packs…\u00c2\u00a0 Those devalue the music.\u00c2\u00a0 But how about a pass to the club, where the developing acts play, sold in advance, for $150. Or maybe $200.\u00c2\u00a0 Suddenly, it truly is a club.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s not about where the act you want to see plays, but a venue you’ve got an investment in, that you own.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s YOUR PLACE!<\/p>\n
That’s social networking in the physical world.\u00c2\u00a0 You own a little piece of the rock.\u00c2\u00a0 And you’ll go on a Tuesday night to hear an act you’ve only read about.\u00c2\u00a0 Or the one with one single you like, but you wouldn’t pay full price to see.<\/p>\n
All this b.s. from the big players.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s all about the classic acts.\u00c2\u00a0 They’re the only ones who can sell tonnage.\u00c2\u00a0 You overcharge, you fuck the customer in the ass, it works for a while.\u00c2\u00a0 But have you noticed we haven’t developed any new arena acts?\u00c2\u00a0 Stadium acts?<\/p>\n
Marc Reiter said he used to go to SPAC, the Saratoga Performing Arts Center, many times during a summer.\u00c2\u00a0 Because lawn tickets were $7, and a movie was $6.\u00c2\u00a0 Music needs to be a good value.\u00c2\u00a0 It hasn’t been a good value for in excess of a decade.\u00c2\u00a0 Ever since Robert Sillerman rolled up the regional promoters into SFX.\u00c2\u00a0 Now prices are high.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s like sports.\u00c2\u00a0 But music ain’t sports.\u00c2\u00a0 And I won’t go to a baseball game on a whim anymore.\u00c2\u00a0 Used to be $3 and you sat in the upper deck or bleachers and got fucked up and who gave a shit about the game.\u00c2\u00a0 Now, you’re pissed if you go and the game is shitty. Because you paid a fucking fortune!\u00c2\u00a0 But, at least the teams are classic, they don’t change.\u00c2\u00a0 We’re trying to break acts in the music business.\u00c2\u00a0 We can’t overcharge.<\/p>\n
We need some innovation.<\/p>\n
Strasburg said he couldn’t sell more passes because the agents would complain.\u00c2\u00a0 But Wayne Forte said it could be like a performing arts center, you just break the season ticket price down per show.\u00c2\u00a0 He was fine with that.\u00c2\u00a0 Frank Riley was fine with that.<\/p>\n
Where’s the innovation?\u00c2\u00a0 Enough with the marketing ideas, how to put new lipstick on the pig.\u00c2\u00a0 How about a whole new paradigm?\u00c2\u00a0 Music should be experienced by everybody.\u00c2\u00a0 It should not be a rare event. We’ve got to train people to come.\u00c2\u00a0 By enticing them to experience new music.\u00c2\u00a0 A season pass is a great idea.\u00c2\u00a0 Ski areas do it.\u00c2\u00a0 Disneyland does it.\u00c2\u00a0 How come it can’t be done in the concert business?<\/p>\n
The record labels said no one would want to download music from the Internet, that everybody wanted CDs.\u00c2\u00a0 Is the concert business so entrenched in the way things have been that no innovation can take place?<\/p>\n
Maybe if you get a season pass, you can download an MP3 from every act playing the venue.\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe if you have a season pass, you get a guaranteed seat at the stadium show, which is akin to fan appreciation night, where the promoter gives back and the best of the new acts perform.\u00c2\u00a0 Strasburg said today’s youth want to hang out together, they want to party.\u00c2\u00a0 Reward them by allowing them preferential treatment, guaranteed admission to the super-exclusive show.<\/p>\n
Going to hear music used to be a casual event.\u00c2\u00a0 Something everybody in society took part in.\u00c2\u00a0 Now it’s exclusive.\u00c2\u00a0 Look what happened when the record companies made music exclusive.\u00c2\u00a0 CDs were so expensive that most people rarely bought one, and if they did, they did so rarely.\u00c2\u00a0 Sure, the junkies bought a ton.\u00c2\u00a0 But the key is not to live off the junkies, but the public at large.\u00c2\u00a0 Like the cell phone companies.\u00c2\u00a0 Nine year olds should not only be experiencing Hannah Montana.\u00c2\u00a0 And fifteen year olds shouldn’t only be experiencing Taylor Swift.\u00c2\u00a0 And even baby boomers should not only be experiencing the Rolling Stones and the Eagles.\u00c2\u00a0 Focus on the youngsters first, they’re the most impressionable, the ones who need to be there and want to take a risk.\u00c2\u00a0 But get everybody talking about music.\u00c2\u00a0 Then everybody gets rich.\u00c2\u00a0 Not only the purveyors, but the listeners.\u00c2\u00a0 A great live show is etched in your memory forever.\u00c2\u00a0 Come on, you can testify about so many shows.\u00c2\u00a0 But first and foremost, you have to be IN THE BUILDING!<\/p>\n
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We’ve got to get more people to go to more shows. It’s not like it’s a hidden lesson.\u00c2\u00a0 The cell phone companies learned this long ago.\u00c2\u00a0 You drop the price, you get more people signed up.\u00c2\u00a0 My ex-wife had a cell phone twenty years ago.\u00c2\u00a0 It cost $1100 and calls were a buck a minute.\u00c2\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1519","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-live-shows","category-music-business"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p96vPs-ov","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1519","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1519"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1519\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1561,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1519\/revisions\/1561"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1519"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1519"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1519"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}