OZZFEST ECONOMICS REVEALED

The first of what will undoubtedly be many corporate sponsorships behind this year’s free Ozzfest has been revealed; and it’s Ozzy himself. OZZY OSBOURNE‘s new album Black Rain which is set for a May 22 release has been put up for pre-order on Ozzy.com, and those who pre-order get two tickets for Ozzfest. The CD costs $13.98 + $2.98 for shipping, for a total of $16.96. This is by no means a large sum for an all-day summer metal festival, but when you put it in perspective about where that money is going, Ozzfest starts to make a whole lot more economic sense.

First of all, this the FIRST Ozzfest-related promotion, and is currently the only way to get tickets. Thousands of kids who would never otherwise buy this Ozzy CD are now going to buy it without thinking — at $16.96 for two Ozzfest tickets (plus a CD!) it’s still a fucking awesome deal and sure beats the hell out of the $100 ticket of years past, plus it guarantees a ticket now while they are still available. That money will go straight into Ozzy and Sharon’s pockets. Now presumably you have to figure that Ozzy’s record label (Epic), tour promoter Live Nation, and a slew of other management / agent types will all be taking a piece of these CD sales. But even so, do the math and the numbers start to make a little more sense.

Let’s break that down. For example’s sake, let’s say Ozzy/Sharon get $2.00 in their pocket per pre-order CD. This is a 24 city tour playing venues that are roughly 20,000 people. Let’s also say that 5,000 people per city do this pre-order.

$2.00 per CD x 5,000 people per city x 24 cities = $240,000

Collectively for Ozzy $240,000 is not a whole lot. Last year’s headliners SYSTEM OF A DOWN earned a reported $325,000 per show. However, figure there will be a whole boatload of other promotions of this sort, as well as sponsors paying straight cash for billing rights at the actual concerts (banners, tents, giveaways, etc etc) and the economic picture of a free Ozzfest starts to come into focus.

Am I going to pre-order this CD? I’m currently undecided. But add free tickets to the fact that I’m already more stoked about this CD than I have been about any Ozzy CD since 1995’s Ozzmosis and it’s an offer that’s pretty much too good to pass up. On second thought… see you at Ozzfest.

-VN