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VIP- News
premium ›› Vol. 127 ›› AUGUST 2010
McGowan’s Musings: Like many of you – although I know a lot of you are workaholics and rarely take time off from your efforts of achieving live music industry domination (!) -. I have been on holiday, and were you able to see me you would I’m sure be impressed by my suntanned and relaxed good looks, but you’d have to make it quick – the pasty white chap with the harassed demeanour will be back in this seat soon! The holiday was great, I thoroughly recommend the joys of the Greek island of Ikarea, but not so the Athens Metro where some light fingered bastard lifted my wallet on the very first day! Oh, and while I’m having a moan - the seagulls, yes you remember Shitty and his crew, have been dive bombing people, and are now a recognised menace as far inland as London – I’m not making it up, it’s in the newspapers! I tried to warn them, but would they listen? – These screeching raptors live on rubbish and refuse and use newly washed cars as toilets, so this is an ideal world for them! (Calm down!- Ed.) Anyway, back to the wonderful world of live music; for years now many have
tell from Ticketmaster’s industry number, for them to be down 15-16% across an industry, that would tell you it would have to hit all segments of the industry.” Rapino also warned that the second half to 2010 could be slow. Cheaper tickets seem to be the order of the day for tat least the rest of the year. Watch this space Allan McGowan
warned that increasing ticket prices for big name artists would eventually backfire on the live sector, though it never quite happened, now it seems that the chickens have come home to roost and the US live industry is struggling this year as a result of ever increasing ticket prices combining with the continued impact of the recession. As a result the giants of the concert industry are contemplating emptier pockets, their own, their investors and those of the ticket buyers. But they are not the victims of pickpockets on crowded Metros, according to Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino a drop in ticket sales is hitting all segments of the market, “The bottom line across all business, whether it’s a club or an amphitheatre, was fewer tickets per show - as you can
The picture is not looking quite so bad in the UK, the recently released Adding Up The UK Music Industry 2009 report from PRS indicate that Live music revenues have increased 9.4% to £1.5bn including direct ticket sales, secondary ticketing and ‘on the night’ spend. However this increase has slowed from 2008’s outstanding growth of 13%.< Bruce Dickinson of Iron Maiden believes years of ticket price hikes are to blame for the number of major gig cancellations that have taken place this year, especially in the US live music market. He is reported as saying, “It’s a massive commitment to come to see a band. They [the fans] deserve not just a great show but they deserve a reasonable ticket price. Other people have inflated ticket prices to obscene levels
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