Goldsmith - More Muse or the concert business will die in 5 years.

[Mozza]

:LOL:

 

Edit: Who is JLS...

 

Some 'pretty boys' who were on the X-Factor over here, they sell records because impressionable teenage girls think they're hot

[roarsirroar]

Some 'pretty boys' who were on the X-Factor over here, they sell records because impressionable teenage girls think they're hot

 

 

:LOL:

ive never heard of them but this is what showed up on google!

[forevermusic]

 

:LOL:

ive never heard of them but this is what showed up on google!

 

Not showing up.

 

But yeah, like Mozza said, they're another part of Simon Cowell's evil plans to take over the world and shun all good organic music.

[Mozza]

Not showing up.

 

But yeah, like Mozza said, they're another part of Simon Cowell's evil plans to take over the world and shun all good organic music.

 

Shit music and manufactured pop has always existed and did way before Pop Idol/X Factor/Britain has no talent. It's just that with the internet making it so easy to download songs illegally, Mr Cowell has had to come up with a different way of making money, so the X-Factor is his way of exploiting these groups, as well as gullible/deluded members of the public.

[forevermusic]

Shit music and manufactured pop has always existed and did way before Pop Idol/X Factor/Britain has no talent. It's just that with the internet making it so easy to download songs illegally, Mr Cowell has had to come up with a different way of making money, so the X-Factor is his way of exploiting these groups, as well as gullible/deluded members of the public.

 

Its the 'as seen on TV' route and Simon Cowell markets the fuck out of it.

[Niall]

Lady gaga plays to unsold-out arena's

proof is that i analyzed here euro&uk gig stats

 

Proof? Trust me, I've attempted to buy tickets to enough of her gigs to know that selling out is not an issue there.

[tonypulis0]

You can not tell that the leaders of discs are sitting on their hands do not worry about promoting other artists, just concentrate on the mouse and that is why Muse have had more success.

[dontask]

My own opinion is that people who care about music need to start buying albums regularly. In my own experience too many people buy the album from a band that is their favourite and all others getting illegally downloaded. Obviously I get portrayed as the idiot for buying.

[hoosier_muser]

Interesting article...is especially true in the United States, where "big name" acts like The Eagles are having to cancel dates left and right. I think part of the issue in the States as far as concerts/festivals go is that many, many acts change ridiculously high prices for concert tickets. Bon Jovi is well over the $100 dollar range. One reason Muse is so successful? They put on a fantastic show, and they can do it for tickets under $50 USD... if the concert industry wants to be saved, artists might want to think about that.

[roarsirroar]

Not showing up.

 

But yeah, like Mozza said, they're another part of Simon Cowell's evil plans to take over the world and shun all good organic music.

 

i'm sorry. it felt weird to have a picture of four shirtless men in my album

[hoosier_muser]

i'm sorry. it felt weird to have a picture of four shirtless men in my album

 

Cannot unsee. Cannot. :eek:

[Llama of Time]

Doesn't help that sites like Ticketmaster and Livenatin rape you with ticket fees. I mean, I bought two 30 dollar tickets the other day and had to pay a total of 90 bucks. Thats like buying another ticket. And this isn't a close show so I can't travel out to the box office to avoid the fees.

 

30 bucks really isn't bad to see a band and an opener or two. But it actually usually ends up as 45 bucks. And it gets worse as you get more expensive with your artists. The fees are absolutely ridiculous and I think actually have a big part in killing this. It'd also help if some of these bigger acts were less expensive too though. Muse was like 45 for best seats at the show I went to. Not bad at all for a band at their level.

 

Its kinda sad though. I really can't think of many people at an arena/stadium level that put on as good a show as Muse. I can think of some that are at a smaller level that put on damn good shows that rival Muse (Not saying better than, but the shows are near that level), but none of those bands are at the same level of popularity.

 

also talking american dollars

[MK Soultra]

They need more bands like muse? Impossible. They won't find comparative happiness

[chudenk]

i'm sorry. it felt weird to have a picture of four shirtless men in my album

 

[Joseph.]

They need more bands like muse? Impossible. They won't find comparative happiness

 

Someone missed the point

[Davinq]

My own opinion is that people who care about music need to start buying albums regularly. In my own experience too many people buy the album from a band that is their favourite and all others getting illegally downloaded. Obviously I get portrayed as the idiot for buying.

 

The article is about the concert business, not the recording industry. Big difference. The artist gets far more money from the former than the latter; album sales are hardly an issue. If anything, it's a detriment to concert sales because it deters people from listening to the music if they have to pay for that too. And if they haven't heard the music, they won't fork over the requisite funds for shows.

[Saracene]

The article is about the concert business, not the recording industry. Big difference. The artist gets far more money from the former than the latter; album sales are hardly an issue. If anything, it's a detriment to concert sales because it deters people from listening to the music if they have to pay for that too.

 

That never stopped people in the past though; the difference is that now people take it for granted that they'll be able to get the music for free.

 

And I'd be curious to know if the bands really make all that much money from touring - I'm not talking about super-bands like AC/DC, of course, but mid-to-low popularity bands.

[Avey Tare]

Doesn't help that sites like Ticketmaster and Livenatin rape you with ticket fees. I mean, I bought two 30 dollar tickets the other day and had to pay a total of 90 bucks. Thats like buying another ticket. And this isn't a close show so I can't travel out to the box office to avoid the fees.

 

30 bucks really isn't bad to see a band and an opener or two. But it actually usually ends up as 45 bucks. And it gets worse as you get more expensive with your artists. The fees are absolutely ridiculous and I think actually have a big part in killing this. It'd also help if some of these bigger acts were less expensive too though. Muse was like 45 for best seats at the show I went to. Not bad at all for a band at their level.

 

Its kinda sad though. I really can't think of many people at an arena/stadium level that put on as good a show as Muse. I can think of some that are at a smaller level that put on damn good shows that rival Muse (Not saying better than, but the shows are near that level), but none of those bands are at the same level of popularity.

 

also talking american dollars

Ugh I know. I've started buying my tickets at the box office for that reason. I know they need the money to pay their employees, etc. But it was never this expensive before. I think they just charge so much because they can, they know people will pay it, and continue to do so. And also it seems like the more popular the artist the higher the fees. I paid about $80 extra when I bought 2 tickets to see Lady Gaga .

 

I've even heard some bands have started protesting Ticketmaster and are selling their tickets through other sites or their own website.

[Trilateral_Symmetry_Com'n.]

This ten-year-old article delineates other aspects of corporate concentration in the music and concert-touring industries, focusing largely on the merger (then underway) of radio behemoth Clear Channel Communications with the tour-production giant SFX Entertainment, but also addressing the issue of corporate concentration within the radio market and the touring-promotion industry. (Don't be put off by the blog URL; this is a reprint of a real journalist's piece, originally published on Salon.com.)

 

[HIDDEN=Some salient passages (note the bolded bit about SFX's impact on ticket prices:]

 

SFX and Clear Channel's impending union represents a profound shift of power in the rock 'n' roll concert business. Clear Channel, which announced its purchase of SFX for $3.2 billion in stock in February, is expected to consummate the deal at an SFX shareholders meeting in New York this Thursday. In March, Clear Channel announced its intention to purchase a rival radio chain, AM/FM, for $17 billion, giving it control of more than 900 radio stations across the country. The Department of Justice cleared the deal last week, asking only that Clear Channel sell 99 of the stations to satisfy antitrust concerns (formal FCC approval is expected to be forthcoming).

 

After one profligate, $20 billion quarter, the company is poised to become the primary conduit through which Americans are exposed to popular music.

 

The company owns 200 concert halls across the country and represents more than 40 tours this summer -- many of which it owns outright -- as well as a host of Broadway shows; it also serves as talent agent to sport stars such as Michael Jordan and Andre Agassi. The bands it represents are the biggest and most profitable in the business, from N'Sync to Tina Turner; in June, it purchased the entire Pearl Jam tour, which now plays almost exclusively SFX venues across the country. While SFX may be huge, Clear Channel is voluminous: In addition to its radio holdings, the company owns 19 television stations, more than half a million billboards, and a new domain address, .cc, based in the Cocos-Keeling Islands, that it promotes with a blanket ad campaign on its own radio stations.

 

In the new world of one-stop concert production, booking agents have been castrated, already-successful bands are offered fantastic sums in return for centralized control and less well-known bands are left with fewer places to hone their sound.

 

...Liss went on to found the North American Independent Concert Promoters Association (NAICPA), which is attempting to defy SFX by coordinating national-scale tours with the remaining independents. (Scher's Metropolitan and Jerry Michaelson's Chicago JAM Productions are the largest remaining indie producers). "SFX is the 800-pound guerilla," says Gary Bongiovanni, editor of the concert industry trade journal Pollstar, "and nobody else is anywhere near 200 pounds."

 

SFX's modus operandi from the outset has been to squash competition from the independents by offering unprecedented guarantees to artists -- a practice that has led to astronomical ticket prices and rise in 'facility' fees, adding as much as $4 to $5 to the price of a ticket at SFX venues (on top of the $5.50 or so usually charged by Ticketmaster, with which SFX has an exclusive relationship ). [bolding added -- TSC.] This year alone, the company locked up at least 20 national touring acts with outright purchases -- including N'Sync, Ozzy Osbourne, Tina Turner and Pearl Jam.

 

"It's a two-sided sword," says Gary Bongiovanni, "giving them [Clear Channel] the power to say: 'Do your show with us, and we can give your record heavy airplay.'" The ability to leverage radio play for concert appearances veers dangerously close to what was once known as payola, the infamous practice outlawed in the 1950s in which record companies paid disc jockeys to spin their latest tunes. "Instead of blow and sex and cash," comments Dave Kirby, an independent promoter with the Agency Group in New York, "it's payola in a different form." The key difference, of course, being that the money ends up not in fewer pockets, but in one huge pocket.[/HIDDEN]

[Carbo]

The UK concert business is big - bands sell out arenas and stadiums pretty quickly.

 

Mind you, once this generation of bands like Muse, Kasabian, The Killers and that lot go, who's left to replace them?

 

New bands? You know, the new generation?

[dontask]

The article is about the concert business, not the recording industry. Big difference. The artist gets far more money from the former than the latter; album sales are hardly an issue. If anything, it's a detriment to concert sales because it deters people from listening to the music if they have to pay for that too. And if they haven't heard the music, they won't fork over the requisite funds for shows.

 

you'll have to excuse me I was just having a rant.