Man, it's been a difficult year for concert promoters and the like.
There have been any number of shows canceled recently, or plans for future editions of a concert series have been killed. Most of the shows were canceled due to one reason.
Soft ticket sales.
That can happen when promoters and/or venues are paying six figures or even seven figures for their headliners. The ticket price has to go up accordingly.
We've gotten some ridicule the past four years as to why we haven't tried to sign George Strait as the headliner for the Real. Texas. Festival. After all, he is certainly in the conversation for being the most famous Texas recording artist out there.
And, we could book George Strait. It only takes money ... high six figures if not seven figures. If we book George Strait, the $15 ticket price goes out the door. It would have be to be triple that ... if not more to attend the festival.
Also, say good-bye free general admission or shuttle lot parking, kids 12-and-under- free, complimentary rodeo admission -- and we'd probably have to find some other things that we could charge admission or user fees.
We'd prefer to properly manage our entertainment cost to keep the ticket price affordable and all-inclusive.
R&B megastar Rhiannon canceled a few shows this summer because of soft ticket sales. The economy isn't quite there yet. And, by and large, I think fans just simply don't want to pay $200 and $300 per ticket to see their favorite artists.
I don't know ... maybe it's Ke$ha. Ke$ha was on the bill with Rhianon for some of those canceled shows. She was also supposed to perform in the South Side Seaport concert series in New York. It was canceled as well.
Note to artists ... avoid performing dates with Ke$ha.
In fairness to Ke$ha, the Seaport concert series was canceled due to mistaken expectations. It was thought 6,000 or so would show up for the free Drake concert. However, 25,000 attended and the security wasn't able to adequately manage crowd control. So, the organizers of the series simply pulled the plug on it ... it was a free concert series so they weren't making money. Plus, they had to deal with the public relations black eye.
Soft ticket sales also doomed Hullabalou at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kent. The first year show was decimated by the heat and the fact they just couldn't sell enough of the $300-plus tickets. The promoters lost $5 million on the shows, twice as much as they planned on losing in the first year.
Promoters have already said there won't be a second Hullabalou ... at least not next year. It was the perfect storm of a huge entertainment nut to cover, weather and economic conditions.
I dare say Hullabalou had close to $5 million tied up in three artists -- Kenny Chesney, Dave Matthews Band and Bon Jovi. The event also featured Zac Brown Band, The Doobie Brothers, Sara Evans, Jason Aldean, Steve Miller Band and the Black Crowes.
Even though soft ticket sales has been the culprit for many concert cancellations, there have been other reasons.
We already mentioned the crowd control issues for South Street Seaport. In 2009, Fort Worth's May Fest was canceled because of what was perceived as a huge health scare -- the Swine Flu "epidemic."
The Glastonberry Music Festival in England will be canceled for 2012 ... two years away. Soft ticket sales aren't to blame for this one. After all, how can someone predict how many ticket are or are not going to be sold two years from now?
No, a portable toilet shortage is cited as the reason the festival will be canceled. The Olympic games come to London in 2012 and all available portable toilets will be deployed for that spectacle.
That just stinks for Glastonberry. Ooops ... sorry. Bad pun.
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Rockers sit at the top of tour list
Pollstar -- the concert hotwire of the music industry -- recently announced the top grossing concert tours of the third quarter of the year.
And, although I wish it could be so, no artist appearing on the top 100 list will be appearing at the Real. Texas. Festival.
However, the top grossing tours of the third quarter of the year all have one thing in common -- a ticket price four, five and in some cases 10 times higher than the Real. Texas. Festival.
At any rate, I thought it might be interesting to take a look at the top 100 concerts. First of all, this isn't necessarily the top 100 money makers ... some of these shows might have actually made more money, but their ticket price was appreciably higher.
These are the top 100 concert tours in terms of tickets sold.
And positions one and two on the list are held by rock acts.
The number one concert tour in terms of tickets sold was AC/DC -- who have sold 1.8 million tickets worldwide. In second, Bon Jovi with 1.3 million. Dave Matthews Band was fourth on the list with slightly more than 1 million tickets sold.
The top country act on the list was Tim McGraw with 838,939. He was number six.
Since the Real. Texas. Festival. celebrates Texas music, let's see how Texans fared on the list.
The highest ranking Texan act was Brooks and Dunn featuring Coleman, Texas' own Ronnie Dunn. The duo ranked 13th with 622,122 tickets sold -- perhaps bolstered in large part by their on-going Last Rodeo tour.
Other Texas acts on the list include:
The Eagles at 23 -- 443,164. Sure, they are generally classified as a California band, but you can run into Don Henley from time to time across the D-FW Metroplex as he lives in our part of the world.
The tour featuring George Strait, LeeAnn Womack (both Texans) and Reba came in a 30 with 350,925 tickets.
Houston's own Beyonce ranked 63rd on the top 100 top concert tours with 168,157 tickets sold to date.
Nora Jones was 79th at 134,411.
Believe it or not, Willie Nelson is still packing them in. Willie's tour was 94th on the list with 105,890 tickets sold.
Ever heard of Further? This band was 54th on the list at 196,350 -- further proving (pardon the pun) that an artist really doesn't need a lot of radio play to sell tickets on a tour. Further is a spin-off band of The Grateful Dead featuring Phil Lesh and Bob Weir.
Perhaps the most surprising entry on the list ... at least from my perspective ... was Scandinavian pop act A-ha. The one-hit wonders of "Take on Me" fame came in at 90th on the list with 107,403 tickets sold through the third quarter of the year.
And, although I wish it could be so, no artist appearing on the top 100 list will be appearing at the Real. Texas. Festival.
However, the top grossing tours of the third quarter of the year all have one thing in common -- a ticket price four, five and in some cases 10 times higher than the Real. Texas. Festival.
At any rate, I thought it might be interesting to take a look at the top 100 concerts. First of all, this isn't necessarily the top 100 money makers ... some of these shows might have actually made more money, but their ticket price was appreciably higher.
These are the top 100 concert tours in terms of tickets sold.
And positions one and two on the list are held by rock acts.
The number one concert tour in terms of tickets sold was AC/DC -- who have sold 1.8 million tickets worldwide. In second, Bon Jovi with 1.3 million. Dave Matthews Band was fourth on the list with slightly more than 1 million tickets sold.
The top country act on the list was Tim McGraw with 838,939. He was number six.
Since the Real. Texas. Festival. celebrates Texas music, let's see how Texans fared on the list.
The highest ranking Texan act was Brooks and Dunn featuring Coleman, Texas' own Ronnie Dunn. The duo ranked 13th with 622,122 tickets sold -- perhaps bolstered in large part by their on-going Last Rodeo tour.
Other Texas acts on the list include:
The Eagles at 23 -- 443,164. Sure, they are generally classified as a California band, but you can run into Don Henley from time to time across the D-FW Metroplex as he lives in our part of the world.
The tour featuring George Strait, LeeAnn Womack (both Texans) and Reba came in a 30 with 350,925 tickets.
Houston's own Beyonce ranked 63rd on the top 100 top concert tours with 168,157 tickets sold to date.
Nora Jones was 79th at 134,411.
Believe it or not, Willie Nelson is still packing them in. Willie's tour was 94th on the list with 105,890 tickets sold.
Ever heard of Further? This band was 54th on the list at 196,350 -- further proving (pardon the pun) that an artist really doesn't need a lot of radio play to sell tickets on a tour. Further is a spin-off band of The Grateful Dead featuring Phil Lesh and Bob Weir.
Perhaps the most surprising entry on the list ... at least from my perspective ... was Scandinavian pop act A-ha. The one-hit wonders of "Take on Me" fame came in at 90th on the list with 107,403 tickets sold through the third quarter of the year.
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