guwapo_rocker
09-06-2004, 12:00 PM
Posted on Sun, Sep. 05, 2004
http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/journalgazette/living/9589361.htm
RANTS & RAVES
Bands’ greed? That’s the ticket
By Steve Penhollow
The Journal Gazette
When Jewel played the Embassy Centre in July, the top advertised ticket price was $43.50.
According to the show’s promoter, John Nittolo, a couple of fans who sat in the front row paid $200 apiece for the privilege (and for the opportunity to schmooze briefly backstage with the headliner).
That $200 figure was arrived at by way of an auction on Jewel’s Web site.
Jewel donated the money to charity, but not all the musicians who buy batches of tickets to their own shows and resell them at higher prices are so philanthropic.
Welcome to the world of variable pricing, whereby musicians and the entities that manage them attempt (tentatively) to determine whether there is any ceiling at all when it comes to how much certain fans are willing to spend for tickets.
The catalyst for this experiment is the scalpers, eBay auctioneers and brokers who have made a bundle over the years selling event tickets at prices a good deal higher than the highest advertised cost. A year ago, Ticketmaster announced that it would facilitate this test by setting up online auctions for artists and managers who requested them.
As Ticketmaster president and chief executive John Pleasants told the New York Times: “The tickets are worth what they’re worth … If somebody wants to charge $50 for a ticket, but it’s actually worth $1,000 on eBay, the ticket’s worth $1,000. I think more and more, our clients – the promoters, the clients in the buildings and the bands themselves – are saying to themselves, ‘Maybe that money should be coming to me instead of Bob the Broker.’ ”
So far, this experiment has been fairly scarce in these parts, and its overall future as an everyday way of doing things may be in doubt after a surprisingly slow summer concert season.
The Lollapalooza, Christina Aguilera and Marc Anthony tours were all canceled this summer because of – the majority of impartial pundits agree – sluggish ticket sales.
At the end of July, some of the most popular touring acts of past years – including John Mayer, The Dead and Van Halen – were scrambling to figure out ways to get audiences to buy their tickets.
Lawn seats were reduced to $10 apiece and $10 food-and-beverage vouchers were attached as a freebie.
“And they still weren’t selling,” says Memorial Coliseum executive director Randy Brown.
The bottom line here is that musicians (for understandable and spurious reasons) have been trying to maximize the profits of their products, and audiences seem finally to be crying uncle.
The answer to the decade-old question, “Can ticket prices go any higher?”, may have been answered.
The truth about variable pricing is this: It could theoretically work to a bargain-minded ticket-buyer’s advantage.
If all tickets to a particular event were subjected to an auction, the best seats would undeniably go to the people willing or able to shell out absurd amounts of currency.
But the less-desirable seats could hypothetically be had more cheaply than they might otherwise be.
Unfortunately, this is not how Ticketmaster and the musicians have been doing things.
They have only been auctioning off the most attractive seats to their shows, which means that for many of the more overhyped shows, there are really only two ticket levels: Hustled and Totally Hosed.
A Los Angeles-based Ticketmaster official, speaking on condition of anonymity, agreed that the slow summer concert season has made the music giant more cautious about variable pricing.
“After a summer like this, price is a very sensitive issue. A lot of tickets are being resold on eBay, but – emotionally – people have a real problem with the idea that an auction might be part of the official process. The fear is that real fans won’t get the tickets. Well, the real fans will get the tickets. They’ll get them through presales and fan clubs.”
It’s not just fans who are upset about variable pricing, it’s promoters as well.
“The artists are overpaid to begin with,” says the Cherry Hill, N.J.-based Nittolo. “Why would they need to generate more revenue? Don’t they have T-shirt and CD concessions? I don’t know what more we can give them.”
Nittolo says he doesn’t mind it when proceeds from ticket auctions are donated to charity, as happened with the Jewel concert, part of a tour that he promoted.
But, otherwise…
“It should not go to an artist’s consumption,” Nittolo says. “There’s something very wrong with that: ‘Hey, let me scalp my own ticket!’ ”
Of course, the aforementioned Ticketmaster official wonders why people would rather see additional profits go to a scalper than a musician.
“If the public is going to pay, no matter what,” he says, “Why would they not want to buy them from us and know they’re getting something that’s authentic and legitimate?”
Good question.
Scalpers are not exactly beloved among music fans, which would seem to suggest that the corporate scions of the music business are even less beloved.
With CD sales tanking, it is comprehensible that a musician might seek to fill the profit gap elsewhere.
But it is a little strange to hear people who have denounced scalping for years suddenly praise a more rarefied form of it.
It’s sort of like hearing a drug czar say, “You know, now that I can sell it myself, I really like cocaine.”
There is a quality issue to consider here as well.
The following is my personal opinion, and as such is open (and susceptible and destined) for debate:
By the time a musician or band is at the point in his or her or their careers where they are charging $750 for front-row seats (as Madonna is doing), or $1,000 for a proximity-and-perks package (as Alabama is doing and Barry Manilow is reportedly considering), they aren’t worth seeing at any price.
Their heydays happened anywhere from $700 to $950 ago.
What you are paying for at these shows is wistfulness, laurels, resilience, myth and prominence.
You are not paying for musicianship.
Maybe that’s just me, but I don’t think so.
The reason so many of the overpriced, overly familiar tours disappointed or disappeared this summer, it seems to me, is that audiences had been there and done that too many times.
People just weren’t as excited at the prospect of a Sammy Hagar-fronted Van Halen as either Hagar or Eddie Van Halen assumed they would be.
“Go figure,” says the Rants & Raves columnist, who has deeply disliked Sammy Hagar since the option of disliking him was first made available to all discerning Americans.
Once again, maybe that’s just me.
Anyway, expect a lot of changes next summer.
“A huge attitude adjustment is going to have to happen,” says Don Kronberg of Nitelite Promotions in Itasca, Ill. “What artists are being paid is going to have to change. Ticket prices are going to have to fall. Major tours are going to have to be rethought.”
Greed, the least marketed family value, is going to have to go.
“It’s all about greed,” Kronberg says. “Greed fueled by companies willing to step up to the table and pay this kind of money.”
Andy Wilson, publicity director for Clear Channel in Indianapolis, writes by e-mail that it is too early to assess the overall success or failure of the summer concert season at the Hoosier venues owned by the company, which includes Verizon Wireless Music Center.
But he does acknowledge that some modifications are being considered for next season.
“Ticket prices for some shows meant fans had to choose what high-profile shows they could afford to see. Ticket prices are unquestionably high, and we as the promoter do not set the ticket prices. We are working with the artists to do what we can not only to make sure there is value in the ticket price but to lower the ticket cost.”
Value in the ticket price means added extras that have never been considered before.
The $1,000 fee for a top-drawer ticket to the Alabama show seems steep, but not as much when you consider that a fan gets this for that price: a snack, a photo with the band and an autographed guitar.
Every person who attended a Prince show this summer got a CD.
The future is fluff, Nitollo says.
“It shows which artists give and which artists take,” he says.
Brown says artists are going to have to get more creative about packaging themselves.
“It’s not enough to rehash the same things year after year,” he says. “New ways must be devised to repackage a product so it stirs up some new excitement.”
In light of this, I am willing to reconsider my Sammy Hagar stance. If Hagar ever offered a concert/leaf-raking/tub-grouting package, I’d be first in line for a ticket.
http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/journalgazette/living/9589361.htm
RANTS & RAVES
Bands’ greed? That’s the ticket
By Steve Penhollow
The Journal Gazette
When Jewel played the Embassy Centre in July, the top advertised ticket price was $43.50.
According to the show’s promoter, John Nittolo, a couple of fans who sat in the front row paid $200 apiece for the privilege (and for the opportunity to schmooze briefly backstage with the headliner).
That $200 figure was arrived at by way of an auction on Jewel’s Web site.
Jewel donated the money to charity, but not all the musicians who buy batches of tickets to their own shows and resell them at higher prices are so philanthropic.
Welcome to the world of variable pricing, whereby musicians and the entities that manage them attempt (tentatively) to determine whether there is any ceiling at all when it comes to how much certain fans are willing to spend for tickets.
The catalyst for this experiment is the scalpers, eBay auctioneers and brokers who have made a bundle over the years selling event tickets at prices a good deal higher than the highest advertised cost. A year ago, Ticketmaster announced that it would facilitate this test by setting up online auctions for artists and managers who requested them.
As Ticketmaster president and chief executive John Pleasants told the New York Times: “The tickets are worth what they’re worth … If somebody wants to charge $50 for a ticket, but it’s actually worth $1,000 on eBay, the ticket’s worth $1,000. I think more and more, our clients – the promoters, the clients in the buildings and the bands themselves – are saying to themselves, ‘Maybe that money should be coming to me instead of Bob the Broker.’ ”
So far, this experiment has been fairly scarce in these parts, and its overall future as an everyday way of doing things may be in doubt after a surprisingly slow summer concert season.
The Lollapalooza, Christina Aguilera and Marc Anthony tours were all canceled this summer because of – the majority of impartial pundits agree – sluggish ticket sales.
At the end of July, some of the most popular touring acts of past years – including John Mayer, The Dead and Van Halen – were scrambling to figure out ways to get audiences to buy their tickets.
Lawn seats were reduced to $10 apiece and $10 food-and-beverage vouchers were attached as a freebie.
“And they still weren’t selling,” says Memorial Coliseum executive director Randy Brown.
The bottom line here is that musicians (for understandable and spurious reasons) have been trying to maximize the profits of their products, and audiences seem finally to be crying uncle.
The answer to the decade-old question, “Can ticket prices go any higher?”, may have been answered.
The truth about variable pricing is this: It could theoretically work to a bargain-minded ticket-buyer’s advantage.
If all tickets to a particular event were subjected to an auction, the best seats would undeniably go to the people willing or able to shell out absurd amounts of currency.
But the less-desirable seats could hypothetically be had more cheaply than they might otherwise be.
Unfortunately, this is not how Ticketmaster and the musicians have been doing things.
They have only been auctioning off the most attractive seats to their shows, which means that for many of the more overhyped shows, there are really only two ticket levels: Hustled and Totally Hosed.
A Los Angeles-based Ticketmaster official, speaking on condition of anonymity, agreed that the slow summer concert season has made the music giant more cautious about variable pricing.
“After a summer like this, price is a very sensitive issue. A lot of tickets are being resold on eBay, but – emotionally – people have a real problem with the idea that an auction might be part of the official process. The fear is that real fans won’t get the tickets. Well, the real fans will get the tickets. They’ll get them through presales and fan clubs.”
It’s not just fans who are upset about variable pricing, it’s promoters as well.
“The artists are overpaid to begin with,” says the Cherry Hill, N.J.-based Nittolo. “Why would they need to generate more revenue? Don’t they have T-shirt and CD concessions? I don’t know what more we can give them.”
Nittolo says he doesn’t mind it when proceeds from ticket auctions are donated to charity, as happened with the Jewel concert, part of a tour that he promoted.
But, otherwise…
“It should not go to an artist’s consumption,” Nittolo says. “There’s something very wrong with that: ‘Hey, let me scalp my own ticket!’ ”
Of course, the aforementioned Ticketmaster official wonders why people would rather see additional profits go to a scalper than a musician.
“If the public is going to pay, no matter what,” he says, “Why would they not want to buy them from us and know they’re getting something that’s authentic and legitimate?”
Good question.
Scalpers are not exactly beloved among music fans, which would seem to suggest that the corporate scions of the music business are even less beloved.
With CD sales tanking, it is comprehensible that a musician might seek to fill the profit gap elsewhere.
But it is a little strange to hear people who have denounced scalping for years suddenly praise a more rarefied form of it.
It’s sort of like hearing a drug czar say, “You know, now that I can sell it myself, I really like cocaine.”
There is a quality issue to consider here as well.
The following is my personal opinion, and as such is open (and susceptible and destined) for debate:
By the time a musician or band is at the point in his or her or their careers where they are charging $750 for front-row seats (as Madonna is doing), or $1,000 for a proximity-and-perks package (as Alabama is doing and Barry Manilow is reportedly considering), they aren’t worth seeing at any price.
Their heydays happened anywhere from $700 to $950 ago.
What you are paying for at these shows is wistfulness, laurels, resilience, myth and prominence.
You are not paying for musicianship.
Maybe that’s just me, but I don’t think so.
The reason so many of the overpriced, overly familiar tours disappointed or disappeared this summer, it seems to me, is that audiences had been there and done that too many times.
People just weren’t as excited at the prospect of a Sammy Hagar-fronted Van Halen as either Hagar or Eddie Van Halen assumed they would be.
“Go figure,” says the Rants & Raves columnist, who has deeply disliked Sammy Hagar since the option of disliking him was first made available to all discerning Americans.
Once again, maybe that’s just me.
Anyway, expect a lot of changes next summer.
“A huge attitude adjustment is going to have to happen,” says Don Kronberg of Nitelite Promotions in Itasca, Ill. “What artists are being paid is going to have to change. Ticket prices are going to have to fall. Major tours are going to have to be rethought.”
Greed, the least marketed family value, is going to have to go.
“It’s all about greed,” Kronberg says. “Greed fueled by companies willing to step up to the table and pay this kind of money.”
Andy Wilson, publicity director for Clear Channel in Indianapolis, writes by e-mail that it is too early to assess the overall success or failure of the summer concert season at the Hoosier venues owned by the company, which includes Verizon Wireless Music Center.
But he does acknowledge that some modifications are being considered for next season.
“Ticket prices for some shows meant fans had to choose what high-profile shows they could afford to see. Ticket prices are unquestionably high, and we as the promoter do not set the ticket prices. We are working with the artists to do what we can not only to make sure there is value in the ticket price but to lower the ticket cost.”
Value in the ticket price means added extras that have never been considered before.
The $1,000 fee for a top-drawer ticket to the Alabama show seems steep, but not as much when you consider that a fan gets this for that price: a snack, a photo with the band and an autographed guitar.
Every person who attended a Prince show this summer got a CD.
The future is fluff, Nitollo says.
“It shows which artists give and which artists take,” he says.
Brown says artists are going to have to get more creative about packaging themselves.
“It’s not enough to rehash the same things year after year,” he says. “New ways must be devised to repackage a product so it stirs up some new excitement.”
In light of this, I am willing to reconsider my Sammy Hagar stance. If Hagar ever offered a concert/leaf-raking/tub-grouting package, I’d be first in line for a ticket.