Now the concert business is imploding.<\/p>\n
It’s not like promoters, managers, agents and acts couldn’t see this coming.\u00c2\u00a0 They just didn’t want to believe it.\u00c2\u00a0 They’re just as ignorant as their major label brethren. It’s just that their comeuppance is occurring a decade later.<\/p>\n
How long did you think it was going to last?\u00c2\u00a0 Did you really think people were going to want to overpay to see the Stones, believing this was the last tour, when that whisper campaign began TWO DECADES AGO?<\/p>\n
Do you really have to go see Aerosmith?\u00c2\u00a0 Sure, they outlasted their seventies contemporaries, had hits in the MTV era, even played the VMAs year after year, but you don’t even want to hear those lame Geffen hits, you want the Columbia classics, and you’ve been able to hear them year after year.\u00c2\u00a0 So, you say NO MAS!<\/p>\n
It’s not only Aerosmith that’s having problems selling tickets.\u00c2\u00a0 AC\/DC is papering stadiums.\u00c2\u00a0 Paul McCartney is essentially giving tickets away.\u00c2\u00a0 Springsteen’s tour is a joke.\u00c2\u00a0 Come on Bruce.\u00c2\u00a0 You’re on a closing buildings tour?\u00c2\u00a0 Just call it what it is, a going out of business tour!\u00c2\u00a0 You’re just so greedy, you want to get the money before it evaporates.<\/p>\n
Ticket sales are not in the dumper because of the economy.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s like saying major labels are in trouble because of piracy.\u00c2\u00a0 Sure, piracy put a dent in the Big Four’s bottom line.\u00c2\u00a0 But what about the fact that people hate the crap they’re purveying, and where they’re purveying it most people aren’t paying attention anymore? Sure, the economy is hurting ticket sales.\u00c2\u00a0 But that’s just the cover-up.\u00c2\u00a0 The true story is the business has broken very few superstars, and the old ones are on overpriced tours, blaming Ticketmaster while they scalp their own tickets.<\/p>\n
You say the labels should have seen Napster coming.\u00c2\u00a0 That they should have authorized P2P.\u00c2\u00a0 When is the concert business going to have an all-in ticket price? When is greed going to be put aside for the long term health of not only the promoters, but the acts themselves?\u00c2\u00a0 Do you really think Live Nation can overpay forever?\u00c2\u00a0 Look at the company’s financials.\u00c2\u00a0 And no new entity is going to line up to overpay guarantees.<\/p>\n
We’ve got to start over.<\/p>\n
But the live business, like the recorded music business, doesn’t want to start over.\u00c2\u00a0 It just wants to raise prices in order to assure growth.<\/p>\n
Hate to tell you, but music doesn’t drive the culture.\u00c2\u00a0 Because all the big acts are tied in with corporations, and are fearful of speaking the truth for fear of being Dixie Chicked.\u00c2\u00a0 Used to be the artists were beholden to no one, which is why the business blew up.\u00c2\u00a0 Artists lit the way.\u00c2\u00a0 Now techies lead.<\/p>\n
You’ve got to start small, charge little and build an audience.\u00c2\u00a0 Which you nurture over time.\u00c2\u00a0 Trying to break a new superstar overnight is like GM believing it can save itself with a new Malibu (it didn’t, in case you weren’t paying attention).\u00c2\u00a0 GM drove itself towards a cliff with no consciousness of the future.\u00c2\u00a0 People want mileage and longevity.\u00c2\u00a0 GM provided neither.<\/p>\n
Concert attendees want music.\u00c2\u00a0 Sure, Madonna might be able to survive selling spectacle, but how many successful circuses exist?\u00c2\u00a0 There’s Ringling Brothers and…<\/p>\n
And a night at the show must not break the bank.\u00c2\u00a0 Broadway overcharges because it’s seen as a once in a blue moon event.\u00c2\u00a0 You’ve got to go to New York City…\u00c2\u00a0 It’s like selling tickets for a U2 show on the moon.\u00c2\u00a0 You can charge up the yin-yang for that!<\/p>\n
As for U2…\u00c2\u00a0 They don’t sell out either anymore.\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe because they’re no longer seen as vital, they’re the new Stones.\u00c2\u00a0 U2 could possibly rehabilitate itself, by releasing a string of singles, one every month.\u00c2\u00a0 By releasing a live album from the tour in progress.\u00c2\u00a0 Instead, playing by the old rules they topped every mass media event with their lame "Get On Your Boots" and no one cared.<\/p>\n
Just like no one cared about Springsteen’s album after the Super Bowl.<\/p>\n
Maybe no one cares to the equivalent of a multiplatinum level anymore.\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe the live business has to give that paradigm up.\u00c2\u00a0 At least for a decade, until new acts are grown.<\/p>\n
We want music that resonates.\u00c2\u00a0 And we want music.\u00c2\u00a0 Lady GaGa is outfits.\u00c2\u00a0 Katy Perry is so second rate she’s third rate.\u00c2\u00a0 The future looks more like the Kings Of Leon.\u00c2\u00a0 A band that’s been around for years that finally breaks through.\u00c2\u00a0 And doesn’t break the bank when it sets ticket prices.<\/p>\n
Screw lawn tickets at a discount.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s like listening to music on your neighbor’s stereo.\u00c2\u00a0 How about getting a ticket for a developing artists show when you buy the ticket for a star.\u00c2\u00a0 We’ve got to get people sampling, we’ve got to get people coming to the show on a regular basis.\u00c2\u00a0 Now we’ve got a business of extravaganzas. We’re like North Korea, trying to blast rockets into the stratosphere, but usually failing.\u00c2\u00a0 To the point we’re a joke.<\/p>\n
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