Who Can You See For Just 99 Cents?

You can see The Who! Through a deal with Hard rock Cafe' (promoters of the event), you can see The Who's Hyde Park performance for less than a clam by visiting http://www.thewholive.tv. A portion of the revenue from these purchases will be donated to a number of charities including the Teenage Cancer Trust, the Michael J. Fox Foundation (Parkinson's Research), the Andre Agassi Charitable Foundation (for underprivileged children) and the Robin Hood Foundation (funding poverty-fighting organizations in New York City).

I don't know about you, but I have a feeling that this may be another example of a promotion company trying to develop a new revenue stream through delivering live streams. Live Nation and AEG have already rolled out their systems, but it remains to be seen whether there is a substantial market for this product, especially as the cost gets slowly wratcheted up.

Full Pollstar article here.

BRIEF: Dave Matthews Gets Clean

A year after Dave Matthews Band was fined for dumping human waste from their tour bus into a river (and actually hitting a passing by riverboat), the band have announced a new environmentally friendly touring plans. Through Native Energy and Clean Air-Cool Planet the band will be offsetting 100% of their carbon emissionss. For those of you who (like me) have no idea what that means. Let's learn together!

According to Offsetters.com, this means that the band will be use a meter to keep track of their CO2 emissions and then make an exact dollar donation to the abovementioned organizations sustainable energy projects. Native Energy is a Native American run organization that helps companies build renewable energy systems and Clean Air Cool Planet educate and advocate on
general reduction of carbon emissions.

"As artists we need to act now to slow global warming. Carbon offsets are one thing we can do to help and we felt working with NativeEnergy was a good place to start,” says Dave Matthews Band.

For more info about the hideous effects of carbon emissions on our environment watch, An Inconvenient Truth (but I warn you, you might need a cup of coffee it is a little dry).
For more info about Native Energy click here.
For full article click here

BRIEF: Innovative Ticketing: In Ticketing

In San Jose, a new company has joined the ticket selling market chock full of great new ideas and a lower service rate. Founded by Steve Weisz, a devoted concert-goer, In Ticketing is devoted to cutting costs for the fans while introducing innovative new systems like print at home tickets and paperless will call. Additionally the company has shown a commitment to the environment with many programs including tickets made from hemp and flax seed hull stock (!).

As part of their push to make tickets more affordable to fans, In Ticketing typically charges half of Ticketmaster's fees. For a Goo Goo Dolls show this summer at the Concord Pavilion, the fees for Ticketmaster are $10.10 versus $5.99 for the same delivery method through In Ticketing, a company spokeswoman said.

In the beginning they started small, investing a mere $195 and offering a limited range of web-hosting and ticketing services to a handful of independent promoters. Drawing on their tech savvy, however, the pair quickly expanded their scope to include privately branded fan club ticketing as well as venue and box-office management services.

While I'm not very familiar with Ticketmaster systems, it seems like the ease and accessibility of In Ticketing's systems will undoubtedly light a fire under the big guys. And with $16 million in revenue last year, In Ticketing may soon be giving them a run for their money. I'll keep an eye out.

Full article in Silicon Valley Business Journal here(scroll down a bit) . More info about In Ticketing at their website here.

BRIEF: Ditty Bops Bike Tour

One more to file under GAS. Now, I told you a few weeks ago about Peter and The Wolf's boat tour, now we have The Ditty Bop's Bike Tour. The Los Angeles based band will be touring through the United States on sponsor provided bikes while a van follows them with their gear. According to the band's website:

This summer we are embarking on a bicycle tour of America in support of cycling, clean air, and our new album "Moon Over the Freeway". Our new record was just released on May 23rd. On May 25th we departed by bicycle from LA and set out toward NY. You too can help in our adventure by joining us on our rides or emailing us with unique places to play, stay, or visit en route to New York City.

Fans can keep track of the ladies' progress (along with pictures and video !)on their blog
http://thedittybopsbiketour.blogspot.com and even plan to ride along with the band.


(The band in Colorado)

Full article on Pollstar here.

Ozzy and the aging industry

(Sorry I didn't blog yesterday. I have no excuse for my oversight. I will blog twice today and hope that you forgive me. )

In a recent issue, the New York Times profiled Ozzy Osbourne as an entry to a discussion about the "aging concert industry".

" But this year the Iron Man and his tour are confronting an uncomfortable reality: rust. Mr. Osbourne, who broke more than half a dozen bones in an accident a few years back, plans to play just 10 of this year's 26 dates. "Ozzy needed to take time out," said Sharon Osbourne, his wife and manager. (Mr. Osbourne was in tour rehearsals last week and unavailable for comment, his spokesman said.) "It just becomes like a routine. The thing is, you never want to get like that. He's got to be as excited as everybody else." But it is increasingly unclear how many more years a man of his age can stay with the tour in any capacity. "It's a worry to me," Ms. Osbourne acknowledged.

She's not the only one. The $3-billion-a-year concert industry is worrying right along with her, about Ozzy and all his contemporaries too.

This summer, a remarkable number of the projected best-selling tours are led by people eligible for AARP membership. Tom Petty is 55. Jimmy Buffett is 59. Eric Clapton and Pete Townshend are both 61. Madonna, whose tour is the hottest so far this year, is a youthful 47. "

While I've blogged a bit about the impending changes in the industry with veteran acts slowly coming off the market, the fatalism (Randy Phillips of AEG warns that we are going to "run out of headliners" soon) is a bit ridiculous. While it is true that The Rolling Stones may only have a few short years left on the touring circuit, it is also true that the number of people who want to pay the exorbitant ticket prices at gigantaur arenas to see them is also dwindling. Audiences are ready for a new and dynamic concert, something that is not so centered around one big ticket headliner (Ozzy will playing the parking lot at Ozz Fest!) and is more about purchasing a remarkable experience. I think these changes (if implemented) will dovetail with the pasing of legacy acts from the market. If promoters actually have to rely upon multiple shows to make up the money so be it. Anyone from Myspace or Guitar Center will tell you that there are more bands popping up all over the place than ever. A vast number of promoters (for example the people of Superfly Productions, creators of Bonnaroo Festival) and performers are reimagining the live experience and we can't even predict what's forthcoming. So much more is possible. I'm excited. Those who lack imagination can fade away.

SOLD! (but not to you): The battle for tickets

Rolling Stone, Mick Jagger, once sang "You can't always get what you want" and it may prove true if you're gunning for a premium ticket to one of their upcoming shows. In what's being touted as a deterrent to ticket scalpers, Ticketmast has started to offer some tickets to some shows by way of its new online auction system.

Here’s the basic principle: The most desirable seats for popular shows are offered in timed auctions to the highest online bidders, with no limit on how high prices can go. Ticketmaster introduced what it calls “dynamic pricing” three years ago for tickets to a boxing match in Los Angeles, and there have long been isolated auctions for front row seats benefiting charities. But the practice started to catch on more widely only last year when Ticketmaster clients began putting more tickets for more shows up for auction.

While thus far only the hottest tickets are being auctioned this way, Ticketmaster anticipates that tickets will be sold this way more and more, as the tickets are being sold at "the price people are willing to pay". Some competitors believe that Ticketmaster is bascially "scalping its own tickets". However LiveNation and Ticketmaster believe they are putting the power in the hands of the consumers by letting them pay what they deem is fair for tickets, but with the most expensive Rolling Stones tickets going for $450, it seems that to the craziest and/or the richest always go the spoils. Nothing new about that.

Full article here.

Negligence in NOLA

In what I assume is a sure sign that things are slowly getting back to normal in New Orleans, a NOLA club, Utopia, is being sued for negligence which lead to the death of jazz pianist, Hector Ruiz. According to the suit filed by Ruiz's sister, the musician was brutally beaten in the club on May 19th by another attendee and then thrown out by the club's security. Ruiz later suffered a fall which left him unconscious. He never regained consciousness.

As I mentioned in my blog post about the Great White case, I am very nervous about these negligence cases being brought against venues and individuals. This is not say that as soon as you cross the threshhold of a club, the club should be completely absolved of any responsibility, but I don't think that a precedent should be established where clubs get punished every time a couple of bonehead junior high drop outs make a bad call. Anyway, I will reserve more judgment until I get further details on the case, but as a person who has been to New Orleans ( a place of rampant alcoholism with the motto 'Let The Good Times Roll') many times, I'm feeling pretty certain that this may be nothing more than an unfortunate mistake.

BRIEF: Tickets By The Handful

New York City is a huge theater town--perhaps the biggest in the world. From Broadway to off-Broadway to cramped basements of Chinese restaurants, there is no shortage of shows to go and see. With all this competition, you'd imagine that audience members would be extremely discerning and shows with poor reviews would be empty and close quickly, but that isn't always the case. One of the major reasons why bad shows live is the season ticket subscription. Theater lovers buy season tickets that entitle them to view every production that goes up during the season. In Pennsylvania, Live Nation promoters are taking a similar approach to filling seats at concerts; selling ticket packages based on musical preference for lawn seats .

With a savings of $10-60 it looks like a pretty good deal and a brighter idea than lowering tickets across the board. I believe sports teams do something similar. Not only can they knock out seats for 2-3-4- or even 5 concerts in one fail swoop, but with people coming for multiple shows I think it will increase concession revenue. As you know, dear reader, I am definitely in favor of initiatives that will encourage people to go out to see more live music, so I am interested to see whether this catches on in other places. I'll keep you posted!

More info here.

BRIEF: Apple on Touring

Fiona Apple talks about touring and her upcoming tour in a recent AP interview. The notoriously introverted and tempestuous singer discusses some of the challenges to getting back on the road after a long break...such as connecting with the fans and remembering the actual words to songs.

Q: What was the hardest part of getting back into the routine of a tour?

A: Trying to just remember my own songs, because for the whole time (off) I wasn't doing anything. Pretty much when I'm done recording and taking songs on the road for the first time, I never play them again.

--

Q: There have been times when you've gotten upset on stage. Does that still happen to you?

A: I get upset on the stage all the time. I use the stage as a place to vent everything that I've got going on in my head, so there's always a little bit of being upset up there for some reason. That's just the place where I take stuff out.

While I consider myself a bit of a fan of Ms. Apple's music, the picture this article paints is of a careless and selfish performer and not someone whose show I 'd want to shell out 40 bucks to see. I can only hope that Ms. Apple's true weakness is not on the stage but in accurately speaking about her work. While she is sitting and going over her lyrics for shows, she might do well to go over the speaking points her publicist gave her as well, yikes!

Full interview here here

Veteran Artists Passing The Torch

Now I know I'm not one to normally gush about bands, but I went to see Awesome Color perform on Friday night and it was...well.. stellar (ha! I bet you expected me to say awesome, huh?).



What's even more impressive is recent interview of Thurston Moore in Time Out New York, where he explains that he was essentially told about the band from a fairly reliable source, accidentally missed their show, and then signed the extremely young act to his new label, Ecstatic Peace, sight unseen because he liked their name. Just his luck that the band acutally lived up its name. Awesome Color, whose album comes out tomorrow, will be touring with Sonic Youth for a month (go see them!). While the story is a tad unconventional, the sentiment is absolutely admirable.

At last year's Billboard Road Work Conference, the bigwigs from AEG and Clear Channel were wringing their hands wondering where their next arena filling acts were gonna come from, while simultaneously doing very little to support young acts and young people in general at the conference (their were only like 10 people who were in their 20s in a room of hundreds !). One extremely solid thing promoters can do to ensure the vitality of the concert business is to encourage and provide incentives for veteran acts to select younger acts to take out. I mean how much skin off Mick Jagger's nose would it be to have a top-drawing club band on the road with them. None at all, the fresh faced youth could give them a healthy pump of blood, in fact. David Bowie is another performer who has been vehement about supporting young acts and while some people go too far and say that the only reason TV On The Radio are succeeding is because of Bowie's valiant efforts, his extremely vocal support cannot be discounted.



I certainly hope veteran acts (AND MANAGEMENT AND BIZ EXECS!!!) across the genres take a cue from Moore and Bowie and make a concerted effort to pass the torch to take younger generation. The future of our industry relies on it.

Network Live in Japan

In a further push to bring concert footage to people throughout the world on every platform imaginable, Network Live, the concert distribution venture between AOL, XM Satellite Radio and AEG, will be collaborating with Dreamboat and Dentsu Casting & Entertainment for Japanese of their content.

Network Live's poster boy Bon Jovi will be the first artist distributed through this new partnership and B'z, Japan's top rock duo, will follow suit, as they've signed on as Network Live's newest international artist.

"From the very beginning, entering the Japanese market has been crucial to our overall strategy of building out a global multi-platform network. As with all our distribution agreements, we were seeking the right partner to help us execute our vision," said Andy Brilliant, Executive Vice President of International for Network LIVE. "With Dreamboat and Dentsu Casting & Entertainment, Network LIVE is fulfilling our promise of delivering high-quality, engaging, live content to consumers on global scale -- across platform and device."

While I am inclined to trust Andy because he has a more awesome last name than me, I am still curious as to whether distribution of concerts across cellphones, computer screens, and televisions is the wave of the future that the promoters are banking on. Japan will be a good market to keep an eye on as the project begins to expand. The Japanese have long been trendsetters when it comes to new technologies and new uses of the many gadgets that overcrowd our pockets and handbags. Dentsu is the largest advertising conglomerates in Japan and one of the largest in the world, with powerful news outlets, marketing subsections and distribution networks. Dentsu's forthcoming marketing model may very well set the standard for Network Live's push throughout the world. We'll have to stay tuned.

Dixie Chicks Route Away From Red

A few weeks ago after seeing The Dixie Chicks in an extremely sympathetic piece on 6o Minutes, I wondered whether people might start viewing the purchase of new Dixie Chicks album as a political act. After hearing about the abuse and scorn the cute little blondes received (some people actually threatened their lives!) and seeing their sad little faces on the cover of TIME, even I considered just going out and buying the CD or clicking and grabbing it on ITunes. A few weeks later as their album sales have soared while ticket sales slump in many areas, I'm beginning to think that my theory might have some legs.

Amidst rumors that they were going to have to cancel their tour outright, the band have rerouted their tour away from many of the midwest dates and tacking on more dates in sympathetic parts of the continent, namely the Northeast and Canada .

As of Tuesday afternoon, tickets weren't on sale for 12 of the tours originally planned cities, including in Houston; Jacksonville, Fla., Memphis, Tenn., and St. Louis (see the list of tour dates here).

However, other cities such as Chicago, New York and Philadelphia were reportedly selling briskly, and a second date has been added in Toronto, after the first show sold out in about eight minutes .

The group's spokeswoman issued a statement saying no shows have been canceled.

I guess that while some people might be willing to put their money where their mouth is in support of The Dixie Chicks stance, with the ballooning price of concert tickets the band is gonna have to count on a little more than just pity and politics to get people out to the shows.

Full article here at WNBC.com.

BRIEF: The Gang's Not All Here - New lineups on nostalgia tours

With reunion tours and nostalgia acts making up so much of the big-ticket summer touring circuit, you'd expect that what you're paying for is a pure little taste of your musical past . Unfortunately that's not always the case, while the songs may be a blast from the past , that guy could be someone totally new.

Today's Atlanta Journal Constitution breaks it down by percentages, and lets you know whether they really truly got the old band back together.

Some of the bands have never stopped, but others have reformed, often without some of the key members that made those hits you remember.

So who are these people calling themselves Foreigner or the New Cars? Let's take a look.

BLONDIE

The hits: "Call Me," "The Tide Is High," "Rapture," "Heart of Glass" and four more Top 40 hits from 1979 to 1982.

Percentage of original members remaining: 80%

Read the rest here.

The Dipping Point: Ticket prices reach the point of diminishing returns

A recent article in The Detroit News, goes out on a limb and suggests that perhaps ticket prices have reached the point of diminishing returns. Citing the fact that ticket prices have "soared 82 percent between 1996 and 2003 -- far exceeding the rate of inflation" while concert attendance continues to fall off, they make a fairly solid argument that it may finally FINALLY be time for promoters to wratchet down the prices and bring the fans back.

Prices have increased at the same time the number of tickets sold has slowly but steadily declined. Some industry analysts believe the rate of increases in concert ticket prices has peaked or will soon.

"At a certain point, which we may have reached, you are going to have diminishing returns," said Owen Sloane, a Marina del Ray, Calif., entertainment lawyer with Berger Kahn, who has negotiated contracts for Elton John, Kenny Rogers and Bonnie Raitt, among other clients.

"I think most people in the business feel that the prices are too high, and you're basically cutting out a lot of people."

Live Nation and Clear Channel are facing a class action suit in Detroit for the same questions of collusion which are plaguing them in Denver, and the article seems to favor the argument that concentration of ownership may be one of the most glaring reason for the exorbitant rise in concert ticket prices. While Live Nation does an excellent job of producingthousands of high quality shows every year, they must learn that the best way to improve their product and keep prices in line with what the customer will be pay is by engaging in a bit of friendly competition. I hope to hear news of a major shake up in governance in the weeks to come. The business will benefit and it will do wonders to build trust in their brand (which is one of the major initiatives for the forthcoming year anyhow!)

Full Detroit News article here .

BRIEF: Free Prize Inside! Tickets with a treat

Ticketmaster and other online ticket sellers are offering special benefits to buyers these days in an effort to encourage sales and push more of the artist's merch.

"It's not just an answer to declining record sales. The concert business has been flat, too," said Ray Waddell, senior touring editor at Billboard. "This creates awareness about the event, the artist. It's a way to bring excitement to the whole thing."

The marketing technique focuses on likely fans, providing them with something they presumably want.

Full article here at Austin360.

Touring Breakdowns of A Different Kind

(From Gigwise) Whether you're playing to sold out 5,000 person rooms or to a tiny crowd of 50 every night (if you're luck) one thing ties all acts together, the dreaded tour burnout. In a recent interview in The Star with Kasabian frontman Tom Meighan, he revealed that he suffered a massive breakdown after last year's tour with Oasis,

“I had a fucking mental breakdown after coming back home. I was scratching at the walls. I didn’t know what to do.

“I was like a caged lion. It was horrible. All that partying and touring took a massive toll on my mind.”


A few months back rock veteran and superstar David Bowie announced to New York magazine that he was taking the year off.

I’m taking a year off—no touring, no albums. I go for a walk every morning, and I watch a ton of movies. One day, I watched three Woody Allen movies in a row. I like going out to the Angelika: If the first one’s only okay, I’ll sneak into one after the other.

Though performers these days aren't the ticking timebombs of yesteryear (save dear Pete Doherty, no artist should underestimate the value of pacing one's self. Of course once you're done pacing you better get up and put out more kick ass stuff. No excuses!

BRIEF: Concerts Not Worth The Trip

The high cost of gas coupled withe the high cost of concert tickets has many saying "no way" to the long drives to the ampitheatre. In an attempt to lure audience back to the venues, promoters are offering cheap seat deals, but it remains to be seen whether it will be enough. Ultimately it seems that the solution will require that the artist create a hybrid schedule of large venues in major cities and midsize venues in smaller towns, bringing the artists to the people.

Full article in Montgomery Advertiser here.

(Sorry guys, I'll try to stop harping on the cost of gas in every post).

CC and Live Nation in Antitrust Trouble

Despite their best efforts, Live Nation and Clear Channel have once again found themselves in hot water. In a suit filed last week in Denver, the two companies have come under fire for railroading performers, unreasonably jacking up ticket prices, and undermining competition. According to the proposed class action suit, Live Nation tied radio play and use of their venues to performers' agreement to use their promotional services.

While this case is limited only to ticket holders in Denver and the surrounding region, if they win it could have wider-sweeping ramifications. Clear Channel had been under scrutiny for some years because of these allegations and the spin off of Live Nation was due at least in part to these concerns, ostensibly closing the case.

Though I am sometimes known to defend Live Nation as a good promotion company (gasp!hiss! hiss!). The fact does remain that Clear Channel and Live Nation are WAAYYY too closely intertwined (see Live Nation's BoD here - all the top brass of CC have seats). If there's no funny business they should have no problem truly going their separate ways. Right guys?

Full Reuters article here

Summer Festivals are Eco Friendly !

Very exciting news. It seems every major US rock festival has made a massive commitment to sustaining our environment. Perhaps in light of the war and rising fuel costs and the ever looming threat of global warming evidenced by last year's massive hurricanes, major concert promoters from the obvious Boonnaroo and Lollapalooza to the less expected Warped and Austin City Limits tour have decided to make their events entertaining and educational.

Here's a short list of the great summer initiatives:
* Boonaroo will offer commemorative shirts made of hemp; biodegradable cutlery and plates; sitewide recycling; and natural energy sources
* Warped tour will be going 100% biodiesel with its fleet of 18 buses, 14 production trucks, and half its backstage generators
* Charles Attal's Austin City Limits bought "green power" for Zilker Park through Austin Energy's Renewable Energy Program
* Lollapalooza has been welcomed to Chicago due in part to a stated commitment to improving Chicago's city parks.

I look forward to eco-responsibility becoming the hip new thing!

Full MTV.com article here

BRIEF: Gas Again

Reuters presents yet another article on the myriad ways in which rising gas prices are burning bands, this time with a focus on developing acts. As we all suspected (or maybe even knew...depending on who's reading this) the big guys aren't really feeling the pinch the way some of the rest of us are.

"We used to budget tours at about 30 cents a mile for gas, and now we're up to about 60 cents a mile," says music business manager Jamie Cheek, certified public accountant at Flood, Bumstead, McCready, McCarthy. "If I have an act that's about to go on a 40-day tour and they've got five trucks and five buses, and a 40-day tour could be over 20,000 miles, that's almost an additional cost of $6,000 a vehicle. So if I have 10 vehicles, that's an additional $60,000."

That money comes directly out of the artist's bottom line, Cheek says. "But the flip side of that is, if it's five trucks and five buses, that's a big tour, and chances are if I look at the overall budget, fuel is maybe 2 percent to 3 percent of my overall costs," he points out. "If your overall expenses are $5 million for the tour, $60,000 -- though I don't want it to be there -- is not going to stop me from touring."

While the article predicts that arena artists may raise ticket prices to cover some of these exorbitant expenses, on the club end things are not budging. Most promoters and clubs I've spoken to are rarely willing to give higher guarantees because of the rising cost of gas, and fans (who often have to drive to the shows themselves) have not accepted that EVERYTHING is going to cost more.

Full article here