
The end of the road for the live concert business? - grellas
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703636404575353351111409566.html?mod=WSJ_LifeStyle_LeadStoryNA
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ilamont
So the Eagles' billion-dollar, 40-year run is starting to falter? Cry me a
river. Ditto for the Limp Bizkit reunion tour, and Liz Phair. Those veins were
played out 10 years ago. Their fans are older, and don't have the time or
money to go out and see these acts.

But that's alright. The great thing about music is there are always talented
upstarts willing to do the work on the ground floor in terms of songwriting
and touring. Some of them will have no trouble bypassing the stadiums and
Ticketmaster, and will sell out smaller clubs and connect with their fans in
other ways, including online. They may not make a million bucks, but at least
they're making good music.

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gwern
> To score a pair of tickets to see singer-songwriter John Mayer in Cincinnati
> on July 27, Beth Collins of Radcliff, Ky., spent $172, including about $30
> in service fees, for the best two seats available on Ticketmaster at the
> time, in section 700, adjacent to the rear lawn at the Riverbend Music
> Center. Ms. Collins, a 27-year-old homemaker whose husband works in a UPS
> warehouse, borrowed $75 from a local loan service to help pay for the seats;
> with interest, she paid the service about $100.

I can't help but think this sort of thing is why poor people remain poor.

~~~
papaf
When you're down on your luck and unhappy, things that bring you pleasure are
more desirable than ever.

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jakarta
I just stopped seeing big acts.

It's a waste of time and money. Plus it's fun to discover new musicians that
are good.

Most of the shows I go to only cost $10 to $15. I also end up getting to see a
bunch of bigger acts at music festivals like ACL where you get a great bang
for your buck.

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jcnnghm
I stopped going to concerts because I got tired of either getting gouged by
ticketmaster, or gouged by scalpers. I hope they go under.

~~~
riffic
>gouged by ticketmaster

gouged by promoters, rather.

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pavel_lishin
> That's forcing artists to tour more, and to keep their ticket prices high,
> despite the weak economy.

... and then Ticketmaster doubles it.

~~~
jerf
The music industry has got to be the largest industry I can think of which
seems to be full of people that just fundamentally don't seem to understand
the issues of supply and demand. And I don't mean the musicians, since that's
not really what they are there for, I'm talking the management.

When demand drops, you have to have some combination of lowering the price,
lowering the supply (smaller venues), or having excess production (in this
case, empty seats). It doesn't matter if you blame the customers (really
stupid), blame the economy, or blame the moon, some combination of those three
things is going to happen. The laws of economics demand it. Most industries
have money people that seem to actually understand this.

(The natural _hurr hurr_ response is to claim this is because they are used to
just lobbying for things from the government, but it goes beyond that, just as
in this article in which they appear mystified about what to do with empty
seats and someone has to actually suggest that maybe the price needs to be
dropped. Maybe if they hired an economics sophomore as an intern next year
they could get this earthshakingly-brilliant idea before a news story is
written.)

~~~
roc
They understand perfectly. Hence the scrapped dates (with or without excuses),
discounted tickets, changed venues, etc. described in the story.

They just work the press and whine a lot as a reflex action.

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handler
it seems that the music industry was making more money than it ever should
have been in the first place. when you look at declining sales compared to
previous years, of course it seems like something is wrong, but perhaps the
years that made the most amount of money were a fluke, and now things are
headed back to where they should be.

in the past decade it has become incredibly easy to develop a fine-grained
taste in music. the activation energy for seeking music you enjoy has
essentially dropped to 0 (searching the internet vs listening to the radio or
physically buying cds/tapes/records), which means less people can be fooled
into liking bands like U2 or Limp Bizkit. it seems like a no-brainer that less
people care about going to those concerts anymore. the music industry needs to
update their model, they can't game the consumer into spending money as easily
as they use to.

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mleonhard
The music at concerts is always far too loud. It's uncomfortable and I'm
afraid of damaging my hearing.

~~~
pasbesoin
This bothers me, as well. I can't speak to any proven efficacy, but when I
find myself in such a loud venue (also some bars, obligatory parties such as
before/at weddings, etc.), I take a "flesh colored" plain cylinder foam ear
plug, cut in half, and place one half into each ear canal. My ears don't
"crackle" -- the halves still seem to work pretty well -- and the smaller size
is unobtrusive so I don't feel self-conscious.

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hga
Lots and lots of details. Doesn't exactly draw an overall theme but gives you
a _lot_ to chew on.

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interesse
Apparently an article about the music industry isn't complete without
complaining about pirates.

