Will We Be Able To Hear Live Music for Less?
Here's the best news we've heard about the economic crisis in a long time: It may end up tempering the Ticketmaster/Live Nation reign of terror. The AP reported yesterday that singer Keith Urban had reduced the prices of some tickets on his upcoming summer tour to $20 to court recession-battered concert-goers. Turns out it's hard to justify those ticket prices -- who knew?
And more artists might be headed down that road soon. Ticketmaster used to offer music lovers who bought a concert ticket a free iTunes download; now No Doubt is offering a digital download of all their music with a $42.50 ticket. And New Jersey's All Points West Festival has a layaway option by which you pay for your ticket in 2 or 3 installments before the July 31-August 2 concerts, which feature artists like the Beastie Boys and Coldplay and comedic side stages.
It's nice of organizers to acknowledge the little guy, but the existence of $20 tickets doesn't mean people will actually be able to buy them. After thousands of Bruce Springsteen fans were "accidentally" re-directed from the regular ticket sale to the scalpfest of TicketsNow, New York Senator Chuck Schumer actually proposed a law that would force resellers to wait two days before hawking their wares. Of course, that doesn't help when they snap up all the cheap seats in the first place.
Related Stories:
· Faced with soft economy, artists offer deals [AP]
· Online Sales Make Hot Tickets Harder To Get [NY Times]
[Photo of Jones Beach Amphitheater: ultrahi]
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