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Musicians are manufacturing sold-out shows

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Re: Musicians are manufacturing sold-out shows

#71

Post by kibibu »

javier123454321 wrote: post #41
onlyrealcuzzo wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Or they didn't want to commit to the extra shows until demand was clear I think the whole point is that only Superstar Divas used to be able to operate like this. Now, even "starving artists" are employing grey-area price-gouging techniques. My anecdata is that concert fatigue is real. I doubt this is going to bode well in the mid or long term. My crystal ball doesn't work any better than anyone else's though...

Would you care to elaborate on what you mean with concert fatigue? I've never heard of it and you're talking about it as though it's something that is so common, it is implied to be known.

I go to more concerts than ever, due to the well-known phenomenon of streaming guilt.

(I just invented that term, but it's real for me!)

Re: Musicians are manufacturing sold-out shows

#72

Post by wodenokoto »

FatherOfCurses wrote: post #61

As an antidote to this I would like to offer my experience in the industry in the mid-90's specifically around Garth Brooks. I've never been a fan of his music, but at that time he really seemed to be focused on ensuring that as many regular fans got to see his shows as possible. He limited the price of his tickets to I believe $25. This was when he was at the peak of his fame so he easily could have gotten away with…

There has been a huge shift in why musicians do live shows and with it a shift in how they price them.

25 years ago, I did an odd job taking calls for Livenation for a U2 Show. While not cheap, ticket prices were well below market value and strict purchase limits in attempts to curb scalpers.

Today the same venue starts auctioning tickets when nearing sold out and ticket master runs a scalping service.

My explanation is back when records was big business, tours were seen as more of a promotional tool. Today very few artist makes sustainable money off of record sales or streaming so music sales is more of a promotion for other services, the main one being live shows.

Re: Musicians are manufacturing sold-out shows

#73

Post by spacechild1 »

scelerat wrote: post #42

There is a psychological hype effect which affects both audience and performers in a capacity room of any size. Whether it's 50 or 5000, if the room is full, you feel it, and it adds to the excitement, tension and maybe magic of the event. There's nothing worse than playing an empty room, and some of the best times I've ever had have been with a band and thirty people crammed into a living room.

As a musician myself, I can 100% confirm this. For me personally, small gigs are often the most fun because the audience is very close and you can actually see/hear the reaction of individual people. Noticing one or two excited audience members can already make a difference. Conversely, a Jazz musician once told me that seeing me in the front row, visibly enjoying his performance, fired him up. Also, in a small venue it is much easier to hang out with the audience after the concert.

One of the most fun gigs I had was a garage concert at a friend's place in Luxembourg we did on our way to a festival. The fact that weed had just been legalized in Luxembourg certainly contributed to a very receptive and enthusiastic audience. We ended up repeating our whole set :-D

Re: Musicians are manufacturing sold-out shows

#76

Post by colechristensen »

scelerat wrote: post #42

There is a psychological hype effect which affects both audience and performers in a capacity room of any size. Whether it's 50 or 5000, if the room is full, you feel it, and it adds to the excitement, tension and maybe magic of the event. There's nothing worse than playing an empty room, and some of the best times I've ever had have been with a band and thirty people crammed into a living room.

I don't know, at several of my favorite places, capacity is 10% too much.

Re: Musicians are manufacturing sold-out shows

#77

Post by greyw »

reactordev wrote: post #54
lotsofpulp wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Livenation’s profit margins are not very impressive for a business that supposedly has pricing power. https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/LYV/live-nation-en... Are you suggesting Livenation’s leaders (Rapino, etc) are stealing from the other shareholders? Looks like Liberty Live Group owns 30% of Livenation? And Rapino owns less than 2%, per Yahoo Finance. https://www.libertyliveholdings.com/about Page 31 of Li…

This is why they have gotten away with it for so long. It looks legit, until you realize they also OWN all those venue companies they are paying too. Not to mention Ticketmaster. The web is so deep that looking at just one entity makes it look like they have low margins and are just operating in this space, it’s not true at all. They own StubHub so they’ll buy the tickets from themselves and “resell” them on StubHub…

That doesnt matter for the 10-k report. Its a fully consolidated financial statement. They have absolutely trash operating margins. If you look at their customers (artists and visitors) you see why

Re: Musicians are manufacturing sold-out shows

#78

Post by fullshark »

FatherOfCurses wrote: post #61

As an antidote to this I would like to offer my experience in the industry in the mid-90's specifically around Garth Brooks. I've never been a fan of his music, but at that time he really seemed to be focused on ensuring that as many regular fans got to see his shows as possible. He limited the price of his tickets to I believe $25. This was when he was at the peak of his fame so he easily could have gotten away with…

Back then live shows were advertisements for the album, these days albums are advertisements for the live shows.

Re: Musicians are manufacturing sold-out shows

#79

Post by phaedryx »

FatherOfCurses wrote: post #61

As an antidote to this I would like to offer my experience in the industry in the mid-90's specifically around Garth Brooks. I've never been a fan of his music, but at that time he really seemed to be focused on ensuring that as many regular fans got to see his shows as possible. He limited the price of his tickets to I believe $25. This was when he was at the peak of his fame so he easily could have gotten away with…

I helped run a website selling tickets for a venue that had a Garth Brooks concert. I can confirm that they did the same thing in the 2010's.

Re: Musicians are manufacturing sold-out shows

#80

Post by shaftway »

spacechild1 wrote: post #73
scelerat wrote: post #42

There is a psychological hype effect which affects both audience and performers in a capacity room of any size. Whether it's 50 or 5000, if the room is full, you feel it, and it adds to the excitement, tension and maybe magic of the event. There's nothing worse than playing an empty room, and some of the best times I've ever had have been with a band and thirty people crammed into a living room.

As a musician myself, I can 100% confirm this. For me personally, small gigs are often the most fun because the audience is very close and you can actually see/hear the reaction of individual people. Noticing one or two excited audience members can already make a difference. Conversely, a Jazz musician once told me that seeing me in the front row, visibly enjoying his performance, fired him up. Also, in a small venue…

The best concert experience I ever had was in the mid-90's. I went to a medium level band (frequent radio play at the time, but you probably wouldn't recognize the name now) at a smaller venue. But I guess nobody really promoted the show at all. Only 8 people showed up for the audience. The band didn't seem to care and rocked it anyway. During their most popular song the singer got down off the stage and passed the mic around, we all sang karaoke style.
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