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Wednesday,
Feb. 4 - "Turbulent
Times... Where are the answers?" - Rob Light, CAA
Third,
we must ask ourselves if our audience is enjoying the concert venue
and the concert experience. I think we realize it is not a seductive
and compelling enough experience in order to own those people for
the future.
If you have flown on Jet Blue, you know how cool the 24 channels of
TV are.
If you have seen a film in one of the new arena-seating theatres,
you find it hard to ever go to a traditional theatre. You quickly
become a loyal user, just by the nature of your experience.
If you have an iPod, well, I need not say more.
I reread every keynote address before coming here and in Brian Becker’s
talk in 2001 he spoke about Clear Channel and five key drivers for
the future:
1. Working together to expand the universe of activity.
2. Broaden their partnership with artists and events.
3. Provide value to the fans.
4. Bring fresh life to the concert experience.
5. Embrace technology.
I agree and I think he spoke for all promoters and arenas big and
small. HoB, AEG, Jam, John Scher and Seth Hurwitz would agree that
they want to do the same thing in their universes. So, I am not picking
on Brian whom
I respect. But, it’s three years later and we need to re-address
these five points.
One: Let’s work together. How about some new inventive formats
at radio that might take a little longer to find an audience and a
rating? How about back-announcing songs when they are played? How
about putting as much promotion behind individual shows as radio shows?
Two: We would love to broaden the partnership between artists and
events. Let’s take some of the sponsorship money and turn it
into marketing some of the artists and not the venues.
Three: Let’s take some of the time in arenas on Jumbotrons and
promote the shows. Let’s cross promote against other events.
Four: Let’s create value for the fans – let them bring
in coolers and blankets, let’s lower the parking fee and Ticketmaster
surcharge when the ticket price is lower because a younger audience
does not have as much money. Let’s take into consideration the
cost of a beer and popcorn.
Five: Let’s work together to give the fan something, say “thank
you” when it’s over and bring them back. Let’s allow
the artist to communicate with those fans through the e-mail addresses
collected by Ticketmaster, the promoter and the venue. Let’s
find a way to have our audience walk out the door wanting to come
back.
Brian, this is not directed at CCE. I feel the same about HoB, AEG,
Ticketmaster, and the individual arenas. If we don’t stop just
reiterating the issues and start trying some new and innovative promotions,
we will stagnate and contract instead of grow.
How is it that just four years ago we attracted millions of young
fans to see *Nsync, Backstreet Boys, and Britney Spears and yet the
live concert experience is not important to them?
We have no loyalty from them. I am not talking loyalty just to those
artists; I am talking loyalty to the concert experience.
How is it that we are bringing back older fans, people who probably
have not been to a concert in years, to see Simon & Garfunkel
and Paul McCartney and we don’t own their loyalty to the concert
experience?
While we argue points like who controls the ticket, why should buildings
get away with $5 surcharges? Who should control the Internet names?
Sponsors in ads? Guarantees and back ends? We debate ad campaigns
and on-sale dates, all of which are important.
But, we miss the bigger issue. Our audience is off doing something
else and we need to find innovators
to address that.
Last year, 55 million people walked through the gates of state fairs
and 126 million (almost half the population) went to the Top 25 amusement
parks in North America. Casinos, theatres, water parks, family shows
and sports all continue to attract huge audiences. People want to
be entertained. How did music and concerts lose their loyalty?
The worldwide entertainment industry is projected to grow by 5 percent
a year over the next four years.
In the last three years, film, television and video games have grown;
only recorded music is down. In projecting forward, film, TV and video
all are projected to grow around the world; music is projected to
decline.
DVD sales were up 20 percent last year, selling an experience that
is not nearly as portable as music nor nearly as personal.
Where are the new ideas? How are we going to react to a world that
has your cell phone, your iPod and your PDA in one unit that is no
bigger than a credit card?
Look at how the independent labels have found a way to embrace and
talk to their audience while the major labels are all losing sales,
cutting jobs and not following through on projects the independents
have never done better.
Side One Dummy had its biggest year ever. Labels like Bloodshot Records,
Rounder Records, New West Records and Sanctuary all had growth years.
Web sites like CDbaby.com allow any musician to create and
sell and produce. I could rattle off a number of ideas, notions and
concepts I have heard – all great, all inventive – but
it is the one that gets done that works.
There is probably not a person in this room who hasn’t said
to himself that video games are growing faster than any entertainment
medium, they totally represent youth culture, I know there is a tour
in this somewhere. But, only one person will get it off the ground
and we will all sit there and go, “Damn, I had that idea.”
So how did we lose the fan’s love of the music experience? How
do we get them to more shows each year and to see new artists? Like
most things, there is no one answer and no black and white answer.
We lose when music gets complacent. We lose when surcharges and ticket
fees raise the price of tickets.We lose when a beer costs as much
as a movie ticket.We lose when we stop sticking with artists for longer
than a single. We lose when we push the guarantees. We lose when the
fan can’t bring a cooler and blanket into a shed. We lose when
no one deals with traffic issues.We lose when the bathrooms are disgusting.We
lose when we don’t speak to our fans where they live.We lose
when a band looks at their shoes and forgets to play the hits.
We lose when we don’t find or create that extra something to
make that experience special. We lose because
a CD doesn’t give you as much as a DVD, Verizon Amphitheatre
is not as much fun as Disneyland, and the computer is more entertaining
than the radio and actually tells you who is performing the song.
Maybe – just maybe – we lose because no artist, no promoter,
no marketer, no attorney, no business manager, no agent, no venue
owner, no one at a label and no one programming a radio station understands
who the person is that pays our salary.
It is the fan and that fan’s relationship to the music and
audience.
So where do we win? We win by embracing our audience and understanding
who they are and where they are and not lumping them into irrelevant
groups.
We win by understanding how a video game can give a song more airplay
than a radio station or MTV and that the interactivity of video is
compelling to a younger generation. We win by creating a concert experience
to match that.
We win by understanding that every new generation will be the most
marketed to generation of all time, so we need to talk to them differently
and more intelligently. We win by charging less for beer, less for
convenience charges, less for parking and then saying, “Can
you lower your ticket price and guarantee?”
We win when Dave Marsden finds a way to turn a loss into a win. We
win by embracing technology. We win by embracing crazy ideas. We win
by being innovative.
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