Why Is The Concert Business Booming?

2010. It scared the crap out of the acts.

Let's be clear, promoters give the lion's share of the money to the acts. Used to be the acts took it and said SAYONARA, but when nobody showed up...the money wasn't enough.

Wanna get fired?

Be a manager who has his act playing to empty seats. Nothing will kill your rep quicker than an empty house. It's the people in attendance, your hard core fans, who are spreading the word. If they look around the house and suddenly it's empty...they stop talking about you.

This is the exact same problem facing Apple. It was its hard core evangelists who spread the word. But now even the hard core is worried Larry Ellison is right. We've seen the company without Steve Jobs before. And what is Tim Cook telling us? TRUST US! What, to have more hits? Do you think Carly Rae Jepsen is gonna have more hits? As for the classic rockers, there's not a Top Forty station that'll play their new music, which in most cases is bad anyway.

So in 2010, fans decide not to show. Primarily because concert tickets were too damn expensive. You want how much to sit in the way back?

This isn't the seventies anymore. Where fans were thrilled just to be inside, who'd sit with their backs to the wall in the upper deck, happy. If you can sell the upper deck at Staples Center, you're the biggest star on the planet. No one wants to sit there, above the three layers of luxury boxes. Unless the seats are so damn cheap.

Scaling.

That's the first thing the acts caved on. Sure, you can charge a ton for up close and personal. But as you go back, prices have to drop. Doesn't matter how famous you are, what you did in the past, otherwise it's better to sit home and watch it on TV. Furthermore, with all the add-ins, it's rarely cheap at all back there. Which is why you've seen more all-in pricing in the back.

As for pricing in general?

It came down.

Because it's not about this year, but next. If you take all the money now and then no one comes back, how you gonna pay your mortgage, how you gonna afford private school for the kiddies?

Not that there are no longer guarantees. Sometimes sky high. But the deal is different. Everything's in the pot. All income. Platinum, sponsorship...

Furthermore, the acts provide tools. Content that can be used to sell tickets. Video clips that can be pushed out to mobile phones, to aid conversion.

Yes, acts are working on it, because this is how they make their living, not from record sales.

Furthermore, the fan is doing what the promoter was unable to achieve. Yes, while acts were pitting promoter against promoter, driving up costs, suddenly the fans said NO MAS! They were sick of being screwed. It wasn't a good deal any longer.

Suddenly, promoters and acts are on the same page.

They're all about selling tickets.

P.S. It's no longer about more. That was the job of the agent, GET ME MORE! Now it's about smart.

P.P.S. If Apple releases a cheap iPhone on September 10, the company has another chance. Otherwise, it's BlackBerry. You wanna know why? Because of what happened with the PC wars. It was all about software. Apple was saved in computerland by the Internet, where it was all about the browser, where the platform became unimportant. But if iPhone market share continues to shrink, appwriters will stop creating content for the iPhone, or will do so much later, driving people to Android. Yes, Apple has all the profits in smartphones today, but if you believe that guarantees profits tomorrow, you believe an act that overcharged and played to an empty hall has a long, profitable career in front of itself.

"Larry Ellison slams Google, hints Apple is doomed without Steve Jobs": http://on.mktw.net/1cJULMV


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