Archive for the ‘Music Business Trends’ Category
The Ticketmaster Scam
I am probably not writing about anything new here. But having avoided Ticketmaster for nearly a decade, I was forced to buy tickets for an event, as a gift, today and had a terrible deal of sticker shock.
I have to ask a few questions because some things made no sense to me. So this is for you, Ticketmaster:
1. Why are your fees so high? Exactly what is a “convenience fee?”
2. Why will you mail tickets to me via standard USPS for free, but I have to pay to print them out myself? Shouldn’t that be the other way around?
3. Why are you really merging with LiveNation? Is it to drive ticket prices up any further?
4. Why are industry folks complaining that concert revenue is down? Oh, wait, think I have the answer to that one…
5. Why are ticket prices so high? Is it you? Is it the artist? Is it the labels? Are you unaware that there’s a recession going on?
6. Again, what the heck is a “convenience fee?” For what you’re charging for tickets, it’s anything but convenient.
7. Why do other live events not charge these sort of outrageous prices? I paid less to see great actors at the RSC and sat in the 4th row in October (literally, I could have reached out and touched the great Patrick Stewart) than for the show I bought tickets for today.
8. Are you aware that general events for the venue I purchased tickets for usually go for about half of what you charged me today? Not to mention that this particular artist has generally been $10-$20 cheaper in other richer cities. Why charge more for this in an area that has less money to spend? Is that some sort of smart marketing that I don’t understand?
9. Why don’t you have any competition? LiveNation no longer counts, obviously.
10. Why can’t the venues sell tickets directly? Or better… why can’t the artists sell tickets directly on their sites? Not fan club-only tickets either…
Which leads to…
11. Why does the industry really need you at all?
Needless to say, this is probably the last time I’ll do business with TicketMaster. The whole process made me feel dirty and used.
Teens Like Legal Free Music
According to Bloomberg.com, more teens are turning to free music services, such as MySpace and Pandora, than downloading music from peer-to-peer sites.
I found this rather interesting myself – I tend to listen to Pandora (especially now that there’s a Pandora app for the Blackberry) more than I do the music that I’ve bought and downloaded from other sources.
Is free streaming music the future of the industry?
Are the VMA’s Still Relevant?
My opinion is pretty much a resounding “no.” But I would like to hear what the rest of you have to say.
What do you think?
I ended up watching “Entourage” instead myself. Did you watch? If so, what do you think?
Giving Music Away…
Two links about the new “trend” of artists giving their music away and why it just might work:
Indie Labels on Sharing, Streaming and Giving It Away
Prince and the Free CD
As many of us are well aware now, Prince is giving away his CD free to the UK via a newspaper there. He was paid $1 million, I believe, for this deal.
But CD retailers are angry. And maybe they should be. But maybe they should also realize that their businesses have become antiquated. As much as we want to deny it, the CD is going the way of the 8-track, vinyl and the cassette tape.
Digital music is the future, just as the CD once was the future. Unfortunately, the record retailers don’t have many options for making money off of digital distribution. Or do they? I always thought it might be cool to go into Best Buy with my iPod, hit a listening station and listen to some music while I was there and if I like what I hear, plug my iPod into a buying station and buy the music right there. I’m not sure how viable that is when people can just do that from their homes, but it’s a thought. I also once predicted that CD’s would go away and people could just buy memory sticks of MP3′s for albums in the future. But so far, I only know of one band that’s offered their music like that.
I personally want to say that what Prince is doing is embracing the new market. He understands the reality of the situation – people are listening to music now, more than ever, but they’re rarely paying for it. And as an artist, he’s still getting paid! For Prince, it’s a win-win situation. Smart move, I say.
Would this work for a smaller artist? Probably – but it’s doubtful any organization would pay to give something away for an artist no one’s heard of yet. I do feel it’s necessary to initially give music away to get people on board as fans. And then do what Wilco did recently… simply ask those fans to buy the next round of music in return. It worked for Wilco. Why couldn’t it work for others?
Just some thoughts for the day…