Posted on 07/16/2010 11:16:51 AM PDT by a fool in paradise
...ticket sales for the top 100 touring bands are down 12% this year, Live Nation Entertainment's major executives went on the defensive Thursday, blaming the press for "scaring" artists from touring and arguing that acts need to alter their pricing strategies.
..."The press," (CEO Michael) Rapino said, has "scared about every artist" out of touring in the fourth quarter. A number of major tours have struggled in 2010, including the refurbished Lilith Tour, and once-can't-miss artists such as the Jonas Brothers have been canceling dates...
Yet the company's top brass did more than point fingers at the media, and promised a leaner, friendlier model for 2011. But first, artists would have to budge on ticket prices, executives said. Jason Garner... "Your guarantee needs to come down."
...Live Nation Entertainment promised that "dynamic pricing," which would add numerous pricing tiers, would be more widely implemented in 2011...
Think of the future of buying a concert ticket not too unlike that of buying an airline ticket, in which the price can go up or down in the days leading up to an event based solely on demand.
...While the lowest third of tickets are indeed cheaper, prices for about half of the house are shown to be rising.
...Yet executives also addressed numerous consumer complaints in a bid to change their company's image. In acknowledging that tickets are often too expensive, Azoff noted that the industry has faced "runaway production costs."
...Rapino promised that numerous consumer-friendly changes were in store. For one, the executive said he would end Ticketmaster's $2.50 charge to consumers to print their tickets with their own ink and computers...
Other changes include the promise to began refunding service fees on tickets to shows that are canceled. Currently, Ticketmaster refunds only the cost of a ticket sans fees...
(Excerpt) Read more at latimesblogs.latimes.com ...
Related news item:
$inging the Blues: Live Nation shares tumble on bleak ticket sales
NY Post July 16, 2010 CLAIRE ATKINSON
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Music PING
As far as I’m concerned, the demise of concert revenue is a good thing. Prices are way too high. Artists and their embrace of Hussein and his cult is revolting, and the sleaziness of ticket sales companies and their ilk deserve to take it in the shorts.
Simple solution: I go noplace where total cost of admission is >$40.
And no place where I go through a metal detector. I’m savings tunza bux and don’t feel that I’m missing a thing.
I’ll see a high dollar show maybe once every year or two. But not at Livenation venues. I’m going to a 100 year old opera house or where the symphony plays to see some touring bands.
The accoustics are far better than a sports arena and so are the seats.
The performers also are proud to sing in them.
Other than that, I’m going to general admission shows at bars and pubs. And those top out around $20 (starting price $8).
Ocassionally House Of Blues or other tickets will be offered up for free and I may take in a show at a bigger corporate hall. But they offer no atmosphere or identity (you can’t bank on the quality of the performer being something you’ll like just because they are playing at “ABC” club; one day it’s corporate country, next it’s 80s revival act, and next it’s flava of the month rapper).
The problem in one word: Ticketmaster.
I have been boycotting that company since the mid-1980’s. And it isn’t just about concerts.
Also don't like driving downtown.
But tickets will drop in my hand every now and then.
Empty seats don't look good on tv.
When I went to see a Montreal Expos game, attendance would drop off around 3,500.
Live Nation and Ticketmaster, have, I believe, merged.
I know that Live Nation had some promo (maybe it is still going on?) where there was going to be no added fees charged.
Forget it... I'll watch the acts on my high def tv ... DirecTv's Palladia channel is good enough for me these days.
Go support local bands in your area, if any, and if they suit your taste.
To hell with the big touring acts. Or not so big, either.
The cost of concerts today is extortionate. I saw the WHO, R.E.M., and The Clash at the old JFK stadium in Philly for a whole $20.00 in 1982, and that ticket was from a scalper!
Ha! I’ve seen the mariners in safeco field about 18 or 19 times. I’ve never actually bought a ticket. ;)
On a side note, great stadium. Lousy team.
I’m glad to have seen touring bands like the Sun Ra Arkestra and Bob Dylan.
Tonight it’s The Fleshtones at a bar. 12 bucks, no ticket surcharge (latest BS is paying for said service charge to ticketmaster at the door for a venue owned by livenation on the night of the show).
Earlier this year I enjoyed The Knitters.
I saw the Who in Vegas back in 1999 for $10. Of course all of the bands were swindled by the promoter in a bogus stock deal.
The concert industry changed in 1969 and you can look to Woodstock and Bill Graham. The music industry figured those days would always be here.
Plenty of bands were excluded from that formula and rejected outright on the basis of politics (Bill Graham said as much on Tom Snyder’s Tomorrow Show when he sat roundtable for a discussion with Kim Fowley, Joan Jett, and Peter Weller of the Jam).
But that “underground” circuit of fame and performance has continued. If there was no money in it, it simply wouldn’t exist. Not for 40 years.
Look at Nashville’s bastardization of country music. They shunned Johnny Cash. There are plenty of good artists today who don’t get through to the “public” in mass media. But they’ve been touring worldwide for 20 years.
I still love the ad Johnny Cash and Rick Rubin took out after Johnny won a grammy when they didn’t get any country radio play.
If you have seen it you know why I can’t post it.
True but the image was decades old.
And has since turned up on t-shirts.
Hollywood waited until Johnny Cash was dead and buried then everyone wanted to appear in his music video and walk on his corpse.
I saw the new Exile on Main St. dvd this week. As documentaries go, it’s very weak, just as Scorcese’s concert film (Shine A Light) was.
They should have held to the “Classic Albums” format, going back to the studio tapes (isolating tracks) and discussing the formulation of some of the songs. There is discussion of how some of it came together, a bit of focus on the house(s) it was recorded in, etc. But actually not very informative or entertaining.
And the whole thing was bookened with interviews with a guy from Kings of Leon, a guy from Black Eyed Peas, Don Was, Sheryl Crow, and Martin Scorcese. None of whom have anything to add to the documentary. To make matters worse, this hollywood hype effort has an additional 40 minutes of interviews with these celebrities.
Telling me “you got cred” because you had this LP in your “backpack” in 1993? I don’t see it. What does it matter?
All of it serves to “cross promote” and tell us who the “new” heirs are. Except I don’t care about any of those people. Scorcese’s best work is behind him. Never liked Don Was’ production and Was Not Was never were. Sheryl Crow? Really? Kings of Leon the “next big thing”? The New Stones? I though they said that of The Black Crows.
What is funny is KOL was doing a fairly decent job of being the next Stones before they decided to be the next U2.
Not that any band is likely to really reach those heights again. And it is just part of trying to give people a marker for what the music is. How many next Dylans have their been?
He also wanted to go electric while the folkies wanted to hold him back.
Even the Stones never expected to be doing this past 1981.
It'd be like Benny Goodman being the top grossing tour in 1978.
Yup, went to the HouseofBlues last year.
Skip the damn COEXIST crap and Buddha statues, and cut your outrageous beer prices.
There is still a decent little scene in the CambridgeSomervilleMA bar area, some very nice Americana stuff at places like TOAD, ATWOODS, PRECINCT etc.
You could check out names like Tim Gearan, Christian McNeil and the Sea Monsters.....doing weekend residencies at Atwoods and Precinct.
Tonight for instance, at TOAD, no cover charge, Nawlins Funk played by Confederacy of Dumpsters....at Precinct, the MardiGrasBall Troupe in honor of Bastille Day.....No, they couldn’t play two seperate nights but the same one.
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