LIVE NATION ANNOUNCES CRAZY CONCERT DEAL FOR THE REST OF 2009
Live Nation, one of the big, mega-conglomerate concert promoters in the U.S., is offering a stupidly enticing deal to concertgoers for the rest of 2009: for a limited time only, fans can buy The Live Nation Club Passport for $49.99, All-In and No Fees, to see every eligible show at Live Nation clubs in their city for the rest of the year. This is such a good deal that even if you only plan on going to two or three metal shows for the remainder of 2009 you’ll be getting your money’s worth.
The catch is that the Passport doesn’t *guarantee* entry — so if a show is sold out in advance or you arrive once the venue has filled up, you’re out of luck. Also, from what I can tell, the initial list of available metal shows is kinda weak, though Live Nation promises there will be more added daily. Check out the list of eligible shows and venues; for New York, the closest we get to metal is Stryper. A quick look at other markets shows mixed results, but it seems that the smaller the market is, the better chance you have of good metal shows being included in the program… and hopefully, more killer shows will be added with time.
What’s interesting to note is that Live Nation could potentially be taking a big hit on this.
According to the publicist who emailed us the press release about the Passport, artists will still be paid in full — as according to their existing show contracts — for every head who walks in the door to their show using the Passport. Let’s say a Passport holder chooses to go to 10 shows, and for simplicity’s sake we’ll say that each show’s normal admission was $10 and that each headlining band walks away with $7 out of that. This means that Live Nation is paying out $70 to artists when they only received $50, a net loss of $20. Of course, there are bound to be people who buy the Passport and then don’t go / can’t make it to $50 worth of shows, and Live Nation will make money that way. You also have to figure that even if they’re losing money on the door, LN will make money on the bar since they own many of the participating venues; and since most venues take a cut of all the bands’ merch sales, they’ll make money there too. And in the cases of both the bar and merch, you have to figure people will be “primed” to spend more money on those two things since they’ll feel like they are getting a deal on the ticket price.
From a band’s perspective you’re still getting paid what you would’ve gotten anyway, and you’re looking at more heads in the door because of the discounted ticket price. You’re also looking at higher merch sales because fans will have those extra bills floating around in their pockets.
So… it’s a win/win for everyone. The only way I can see things going awry is if demand is higher than supply — that is, if so many people buy the Passport that it’s overly difficult to get into shows, leaving customers angry. As a metal fan, I’d definitely be into purchasing a Passport but I’d wait just a little while to see what other interesting shows are going to be included in this program.
-VN
