{"id":3052,"date":"2010-06-16T02:53:03","date_gmt":"2010-06-16T10:53:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/?p=3052"},"modified":"2010-06-16T02:57:13","modified_gmt":"2010-06-16T10:57:13","slug":"live-nation-cancels-shows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/2010\/06\/16\/live-nation-cancels-shows\/","title":{"rendered":"Live Nation Cancels Shows"},"content":{"rendered":"

Unilaterally.\u00c2\u00a0 Supposedly 200 at CAA alone.<\/p>\n

This has been the buzz of L.A. for days, but has gotten no mainstream media attention.<\/p>\n

We know it’s been a bad summer…\u00c2\u00a0 But this bad?<\/p>\n

The concert giant is trying to save itself.\u00c2\u00a0 Which is the exact opposite of its behavior since its inception, which was about overpaying to decimate the competition.<\/p>\n

They’ve achieved their goal, but at the cost of their bottom line.\u00c2\u00a0 And when the Ticketmaster kickbacks don’t make up the difference, when there aren’t enough people in the venue to profit from food and beer sales, never mind a cut of merch, drastic measures are necessary.\u00c2\u00a0 This on top of a no secondary market booking policy that was instituted months back.<\/p>\n

You may be on the outside, laughing, but unless you’re a consumer, you’re in trouble.\u00c2\u00a0 The giant that overpaid and didn’t demand you give back on a losing show? That company is gone.\u00c2\u00a0 Replaced by one struggling for not only its survival, but a good share price (oftentimes in reverse order).<\/p>\n

Michael Rapino has gone on record that if he doesn’t pay, someone else will.<\/p>\n

But suddenly, the casinos can walk away.\u00c2\u00a0 And not everything AEG presents sells out.<\/p>\n

So where do we go from here?<\/p>\n

Lower prices.<\/p>\n

Then again, a lot of these shows no one wants to see at any price.\u00c2\u00a0 And too many oldsters have toured the same show year after year after year and the audience has seen it, and won’t overpay to go again.<\/p>\n

The "Wall Street Journal" reported Saturday that retail sales waned in May <\/p>\n

\n
\nConsumers Tighten Belts<\/a><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

So one can say soft concert ticket sales are just a reflection of the economy.<\/p>\n

Let’s hope so, but I doubt it.\u00c2\u00a0 I believe we’re going through a giant reset, and there’s a good chance the landscape will look totally different when we’re done.<\/p>\n

First and foremost, the audience has gotten out of the habit of going to the show.\u00c2\u00a0 Once a year is not a habit.\u00c2\u00a0 And with so few places to break major acts, people would rather play Farmville on Facebook than take a flier on a new act, even if it’s cheap.<\/p>\n

Our whole musical business culture is bankrupt.<\/p>\n

The major labels can’t build acts because they’ve got no revenue and no one working there.\u00c2\u00a0 They can put their energies behind one or two horses at most.<\/p>\n

Labels used to support clubs.\u00c2\u00a0 But they can no longer afford to, and club promoters are not incentivized to lose money, because they know when the act grows, it’ll just go to Live Nation or AEG.<\/p>\n

Agents felt they were in a winning position.\u00c2\u00a0 Acts would always get paid, no, let’s make that OVERPAID!\u00c2\u00a0 But it’s one thing for the promoter to lose money at a show, it’s another thing for the act to lose the date entirely.<\/p>\n

Who’s going to give the bad news?\u00c2\u00a0 Where does the buck stop?<\/p>\n

Looks like Live Nation is crying uncle.\u00c2\u00a0 And can you sue Live Nation for breach of contract when most of your business is done with the behemoth?<\/p>\n

Acts and managers are going to have to adjust.\u00c2\u00a0 The free ride is over.\u00c2\u00a0 Especially for those who haven’t had hits in eons.\u00c2\u00a0 You’ve now got to earn your pay.\u00c2\u00a0 And that pay is going to be a lot less.\u00c2\u00a0 The days of the act making a profit and the promoter losing his shirt appear to be over.<\/p>\n

<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Unilaterally.\u00c2\u00a0 Supposedly 200 at CAA alone. This has been the buzz of L.A. for days, but has gotten no mainstream media attention. We know it’s been a bad summer…\u00c2\u00a0 But this bad? The concert giant is trying to save itself.\u00c2\u00a0 Which is the exact opposite of its behavior since its inception, which was about overpaying […]<\/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-3052","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-Ne","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3052","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=3052"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3052\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3055,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3052\/revisions\/3055"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3052"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3052"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3052"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}