The Music Industry

With these turbulent times amongst us, every industry seems to be effected by the current downfall of our economy. The music industry is no different. Many consumers are holding on to every penny they have. I read an interesting article earlier about how ticketing marketers, like Ticketmaster and LiveNation, are leaving some music makers sour over their high ticket fees. According to Jarrett Belinni of CNN, Bruce "Springsteen himself accused Ticketmaster of in effect 'scalping' the tickets."

Companies like Ticketmaster are able to charge outrageous fees per ticket sold. This is highly discouraging for new start-up or lesser known bands. In some instances, patrons are being charged nearly as much in service fees as they are for the actual ticket. This effects the music makers because consumers are less likely to go out to see a new band play if the tickets are expensive.

Some venues started taking matters into their own hands. Venues like Smiths Old Bar charges people at the door rather then pre-selling tickets through Ticketmaster. Other venues have a mixture of both, where consumer have the option to purchase tickets from Ticketmaster or they offer tickets at the venue which are free of fees. Atlanta's Variety Playhouse offers the dual ticket selling method. In their approach to selling tickets, I feel that they definitely have a competitive advantage over other venues by giving their customers another way to purchase tickets. By hedging the risk of selling tickets through a vendor like Ticketmaster and by selling tickets at their own venue, they can attract customers who enjoy the convenience of Ticketmaster and those who prefer to just buy tickets from the venue. I feel that venues will have to start paying more attention to how the economy may effect concert goers and take into consideration their personally methods of ticket distribution and how they could inevitably hurt their business.