Rocknomics?

Today I waltzed over to the Warsaw here in Greenpoint to try and get a $13 ticket for Band of Horses, they didn't have them available, so I logged on to Ticketmaster and accepted that I'd have to pay a buck or two as service charge. The service charge was 40% on top of the face value! I recoiled in disgust.

Meanwhile just down the road at Princeton, Professor Alan Krueger has been studying the economics of the concert business. BBC Profiles him in this excellent article, and lays out some of his conclusions.

"Before the advent of illegal downloads, artists had an incentive to underprice their concerts, because bigger audiences translated into higher record sales, Professor Krueger argues.

But now, he says, the link between the two products has been severed, meaning that artists and their managers need to make more money from concerts and feel less constrained in setting ticket prices.

Professor Krueger says this tendency was spotted by David Bowie, who told the New York Times in 2002 that "music itself is going to become like running water or electricity".

Bowie has advised his fellow performers: "You'd better be prepared for doing a lot of touring, because that's really the only unique situation that's going to be left."

Though I challenge the idea that the rise in illegal downloads directly caused with the exorbitant ticket prices (correlation doesn't equal causation. plus, what about the greedy record labels and the greedy artists and the cost of gas and the rising cost of utilities and and and),but I definitely agree that touring is increasingly becoming the primary income source for most artists. I also think that the internet is helping to bring people out to shows and spread the word about bands even before they hop into the van. I've gone to many a show on the suggestion of a music blogger, and I know many others who do as well. I'm tired of everyone passing the buck on why the fans are getting hit in the pocket: bring us good music and a great stage show at a reasonable price and we will pay....well, unless--of course--we can get on the list...(anyone from Band of Horses out there?).