November 5, 2007
(Part 2 of 3)
As I return from a 10-day driving trip thru the Southwest, getting to listen to great music while I’m cruising down the road, I continue my ramblings about the music business.
Last time I talked about the decline of the music industry and the rebellious act of Radiohead to release their new album without a record label backing them. I must add here that it seems, so far, to have been a success. As reports come in, even if the band sold their album on an average of $2.50 per copy, they may have collected in excess of $3 million, so far. More than they could have ever hoped for from a label. Good work, boys!
Now I want to talk about the concert industry, the part of the music industry that I was personally involved with for over a decade. When I was catering concerts in the ’80s, there were so many to choose from in a summer season, you could virtually go to a great show at least three times a week. Prices ranged from $5 to $25 and rarely did you pay more than that, even for an all day stadium show. I attended the multi-mega-act Live-Aid benefit concert event in ’85 in Philly and my ticket cost $22.50, if I’m remembering correctly. So, twenty years ago you got a lot of bang for your buck and you could be known to see 20-30 concerts in a year.
Today it’s a very different story. The average number of concerts a person sees now in a year is 1.5. Ticket prices have soared to unattainable amounts for average-income music lovers to afford. Now we have to really pick and choose what we want to spend our hard earned money on. With prices like $250 a ticket, plus parking, plus a T-shirt, plus a beer or two, and possibly dinner, you’re looking at a very expensive night out. Enough to pay the mortgage payment on your house and maybe even your car payment.
But with the state of the recording business for artists and free downloading off the internet of their libraries, the only way for them to make a real buck these days is on touring. But will the public support it?
Here is an interesting example of a concert situation that happened this summer that the public wouldn’t support. Barbra Streisand went out on the road for a European tour in early summer and her first show was to be in Rome. She had never performed in Rome before and the Romans were excited. But when the ticket prices were announced at somewhere around $500-$1,000, the Romans rebelled and said, “The 24,000-seat stadium is public property and cannot be used for immoral deals that are shameful to a civilized country.” Ms. Streisand was forced to cancel the show.
If a music icon like Barbra Streisand has those problems, then what does that do for a newcomer on the scene like Kelly Clarkson, the first "American Idol" winner? Kelly has had a successful career so far, selling millions of albums and even winning a Grammy. But when it came to her concert tour being announced this summer in big arenas, not enough people would buy tickets and the whole tour was cancelled. She had to re-schedule later in the summer in smaller venues.
There is much talk these days on the music blogs about Ticketmaster and the seemingly endless extra charges that are tacked onto the already inflated ticket prices. Ticketmaster has been the "only game in town" to buy tickets from for many years, since they bought out all the small independent ticketing agencies and they have retained a monopoly on the business of selling tickets. Years ago, members of Pearl Jam tried to fight Ticketmaster and not sell their tickets through them, even taking it to the Supreme Court, but after taking months, they eventually lost their case to the ticket-selling giant. This marked a blow to the highly conscious band and their fans. But they gained even more respectability for trying.
Now, not only is there the market value price of Ticketmaster to contend with, but a new monster has reared its ugly head, the scalpers or ticket brokers. Yes, there have always been scalpers outside the venues selling tickets. These were individuals that would buy up rows of tickets, inflate the prices trying to make money and were sometimes stuck with them. The scalping business has now grown and organized into a corporate enterprise and referred to in the biz as ‘the secondary market.’
The secondary market has websites to sell tickets, for example, Stubhub, where you can find tickets to sold-out shows at extremely inflated prices that range into the thousands. Hard to believe that people really pay those prices. These organizations make Ticketmaster look good. The good news is that if you can make friends with a ticket broker, you can sometimes buy tickets for your favorite artist at the market value without having to pay the extra charges that Ticketmaster gets, if the broker just wants to unload tickets at the last minute.
This is an issue that was just raised at the recent announcement of the hugely kid-popular performer, Miley Cyrus, better known as Hannah Montana. Tickets went on sale in Kansas City at the brand new Sprint Center, which holds 14,000 seats, in early October for a Dec. 3rd show and was sold out in an hour. Parents were furious that tickets at $56 were unavailable immediately after going on sale and then turned up online for five times that much. “A very short time after tickets go on sale, they're sold out. The problem is a huge number of tickets are bought up by resellers who not only charge astronomical prices, but keep real fans from being able to see her perform,” says Gary Bourgeault of the Alpha Marketer.
Garth Brooks was also booked into the Sprint Center on Nov. 14 and actually came to Kansas City the first week of October to celebrate the opening. Garth broke the rules and priced his tickets at the incredibly low price of $27.50 and then surprised everyone by announcing 8 more nights, selling out every night and keeping the scalpers from being able to gouge the public. That’s almost 140,000 tickets. Wow!
If the public will just speak out and not stand for the ridiculous prices, artists, promoters, and managers will have to listen. None of these bands can survive without the support of the fans.
That’s it for now, but stay tuned for Part III next time.
Also, I wanted to give you a quick reminder that the new Eagles album is out, “Long Road Out of Eden.” It’s been many years since we were treated to brand new material from the Eagles and it is terrific.
Until next time, rock on and be excellent to each other… Penny
Comments
amazonratz (anonymous) says...
penny, this is a really interesting topic. I often wish to see concerts of "oldies but goodies" but the ticket prices are just too much. I hope the industry will make some changes....
November 5, 2007 at 6:40 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
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