I wasn't planning on doing a blog entry today, until I swung around CNN and found this
troubling article (emphasis mine):
Singin' the summer concert blues
Music industry feels the pain as Christina, Britney and Marc bow out of tours. Are fans in revolt?
June 25, 2004: 3:00 PM EDT
By Krysten Crawford, CNN/Money staff writer
NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - The summer concert season is looking a bit sickly these days, and not just because Britney Spears has a bum knee.
At least four top draws -- Spears, Christina Aguilera, Marc Anthony and Jessica Simpson -- have cancelled some or all of their tours, costing themselves, promoters and T-shirt vendors, not to mention people like stadium security guards, millions of dollars in lost ticket and merchandise sales, publicity, and income.
But these bowouts tell only half the story.
The other half: ticket sales have slowed across the $2.5 billion concert industry.
In response, Clear Channel Entertainment, the world's largest producer of live entertainment, has slashed ticket prices twice in recent weeks.
In two markets, San Antonio and San Francisco, the company has recently offered up lawn tickets to all of its shows for just $10 and $20 apiece.
"It's almost like the business went off a cliff and it has not come back yet," said Gary Bongiovanni, the editor-in-chief of Pollstar, a weekly magazine that tracks the concert industry.
And now, thanks to that cliff, the business is now taking the live music section of the industry with it.
However, can we really, honestly, believe that this was not bound to happen sooner or later? In an age where government officials tout an economic recovery of consumer prices rising faster than average wages and many, many people still feeling that burden, how much longer did Clear Channel, Ticketmaster, and all these corporations think it would be before $500 tickets would no longer be affordable for the majority of the public?
Ticket brokers and industry observers say two related forces are at play. One is the sheer number of crooners young and old now criss-crossing the country. Factor two: rising ticket prices.
Now, don't get me wrong - I approve of raising ticket prices as one band gains more and more publicity - simple economics, demand. My band raised the cover charge once (a measly $2) for a CD Release Party which turned out to be a very successful and fun show for everyone involved. But, what I do not approve are ticket sales that go way beyond what we would normally expect to pay to see a certain band and what they will give their fans.
Gov't Mule, one of the best live hard rock bands playing today - my ticket, $16.
Robert Randolph (whom we opened up for back in October 2003), an incredible live show every time you see him - my ticket, $16.
Bela Fleck & the Flecktones, one of the most original and awesome music shows you could see - my ticket, $20.
Derek Trucks Band, the awesome band of the guitar prodigy who is the best slide guitar player since Duane Allman - my ticket $18.
(Oh, and just so you know, these guys put on, at a minimum, a 2+ hour show, with Mule known to go almost 3 hours and then come out to hang with the fans afterwards. All prices above are estimated to what they cost before.)
Now, you take that and now you put Aerosmith, nothing against those guys, who came into my town, and for a show that went less than 90 minutes (and from what I heard was a pretty bad show), the ticket price was over $70! The week before, Yanni came into town with tickets pricing the same amount! I don't know if you know this, but the Wakarusa Festival I played at sold tickets, for this 4-day festival, for $90 - $90 to see Robert Randolph, Galactic, Mofro, Keller Williams, Derek Trucks Band, Leftover Salmon, North Mississippi Allstars, and many many more. And people are wondering why no one is forking up the money for these expensive one-artist shows.
But Las Vegas broker and president of PreferredTicket.com Michael Issac makes an interesting point immediately thereafter in the article:
Having so many acts is "too much of a good thing," said Issac. "People have only so much money. They can't do everything."
Why is it too much of a good thing? The article sheds a little light on that:
Unlike with album sales, the
performers themselves pocket the bulk of the price of a ticket, portions of which pay for five-star hotels, bodyguards and so on. So when a rock star cancels her tour, her bank account feels the pain too.
For promoters, who get a much smaller slice of ticket sales, what matters most is concert attendance. That's because they make most of their money off T-shirt sales and other services like parking.
Because of the music download controversies, live shows, in the last couple of years, have been the only thing that musicians and other people in the business could rely on to make money. So now, you have thousands of musicians and artists touring the country, some making thousands, some making a measly $30 (my band, five members, has been down that path recently - yes, $30 for 5 people, that's barely enough for a biggie-sized combo at Wendys for each member!). But the fact is that with so many musicians playing, there is so much to choose from and yet so little you can actually afford or make the effort to see.
Like it or not, the way artists make their money these days is not by record sales, but by touring, relentlessly. You can thank the massive concentration of labels, radio stations, etc. for forcing this reality upon many of us musicians.
Still, even if a band does 24 shows a month for two months, each member may barely have enough to get by without having a second job. There are so many people who retain the mistaken concept that bands who have 15-shows-per-month touring calendars do only this and nothing else. Macon, GA band Moonshine Still is in the middle of their tour going out west to play at High Sierra, and has easily played close to, if not more than, 100 shows so far this year, and yet most if not all the members of that band still need a part-time job to help make ends meet!
At a decent-sized club, the house may be moderately packed with people, but the total amount of folks may only be 180 (if you are lucky), and the band, from the door alone, may only make $1,500 total. That's one show alone, from a series of shows where the average amount of money made is $800 a show. That may seem like a lot, but for a 5 or 6-person band, not to mention a small street team going with you to help sell merchandise or even help run sound, that money evaporates rather quickly.
This is not an easy business, no matter what anyone else may say. As a fellow musician wisely told me, "If this business were easy, everybody would be doing it." It takes a certain committment and humble acceptance of what to expect for yourself and others to be able to go through with such a difficult venture. Teachers who taught music business classes never failed to mention that there are many ways for one person to make money in this business, and there are. But, with the advent of technology and the stubbornness of these power-hungry corporations and labels that want to control everything, those opportunities to make money grow less and less. And now the only haven that musicians have to make enough bread to support themselves and their families is feeling the pressure of an overflow of supply and dwindling demand in an economy that is forcing people to simply stay at home and not go out and have a good time.
As a travelling musician who has, and continues to get, his own share of scars and dues paid in this business, I can't say I'm surprised that this is happening now. I had a feeling it was bound to happen, and the cancellation of Lollapalooza due to very poor ticket sales (which the article mentions too) is as clear an indication as one can find that unless things change in our current government and those that are in control of this business do not stop, or if we fail to stop, this aggressive consolidation of it all, it will only be a matter of time before musicians, at least in this country, will be declared an endangered species, if they aren't already.