LIVE NATION ANNOUNCES CRAZY CONCERT DEAL FOR THE REST OF 2009
Thursday, September 17th, 2009 at 2:40pm by Vince Neilstein
Live Nation, one of the big, mega-conglomerate concert promoters in the U.S., is offering a stupidly enticing deal to concertgoers for the rest of 2009: for a limited time only, fans can buy The Live Nation Club Passport for $49.99, All-In and No Fees, to see every eligible show at Live Nation clubs in their city for the rest of the year. This is such a good deal that even if you only plan on going to two or three metal shows for the remainder of 2009 you’ll be getting your money’s worth.
The catch is that the Passport doesn’t *guarantee* entry — so if a show is sold out in advance or you arrive once the venue has filled up, you’re out of luck. Also, from what I can tell, the initial list of available metal shows is kinda weak, though Live Nation promises there will be more added daily. Check out the list of eligible shows and venues; for New York, the closest we get to metal is Stryper. A quick look at other markets shows mixed results, but it seems that the smaller the market is, the better chance you have of good metal shows being included in the program… and hopefully, more killer shows will be added with time.
What’s interesting to note is that Live Nation could potentially be taking a big hit on this.
According to the publicist who emailed us the press release about the Passport, artists will still be paid in full — as according to their existing show contracts — for every head who walks in the door to their show using the Passport. Let’s say a Passport holder chooses to go to 10 shows, and for simplicity’s sake we’ll say that each show’s normal admission was $10 and that each headlining band walks away with $7 out of that. This means that Live Nation is paying out $70 to artists when they only received $50, a net loss of $20. Of course, there are bound to be people who buy the Passport and then don’t go / can’t make it to $50 worth of shows, and Live Nation will make money that way. You also have to figure that even if they’re losing money on the door, LN will make money on the bar since they own many of the participating venues; and since most venues take a cut of all the bands’ merch sales, they’ll make money there too. And in the cases of both the bar and merch, you have to figure people will be “primed” to spend more money on those two things since they’ll feel like they are getting a deal on the ticket price.
From a band’s perspective you’re still getting paid what you would’ve gotten anyway, and you’re looking at more heads in the door because of the discounted ticket price. You’re also looking at higher merch sales because fans will have those extra bills floating around in their pockets.
So… it’s a win/win for everyone. The only way I can see things going awry is if demand is higher than supply — that is, if so many people buy the Passport that it’s overly difficult to get into shows, leaving customers angry. As a metal fan, I’d definitely be into purchasing a Passport but I’d wait just a little while to see what other interesting shows are going to be included in this program.
-VN
Boston gets the In Flames concert with BTBAM
Looks like a deal. Plenty of shows to attend from now till december in LA, including Mastodon, Dethklok, Converge, High on Fire. Fuck yesssssss.
Just a heads up – the epic Mastoklok shows are NOT listed as available for the passport – the only metal show we LA kids get in the deal is Dragonforce tomorrow night.
Support independent venues instead… Any savings you realize from this will quickly be eaten up by high prices at the bar, parking, etc.
If the house of blues puts all the locals out of business, we will all be going to the same cookie cutter corporate venues in every town.
Metal clubs should have character… it shouldn’t be like going to Applebee’s!
Well said Bill. I dont like buying 10 dollar cans of PBR
It says on the live nation page that you request a spot, so you don’t just have to show up super early to guarantee admission. But what’s to stop someone from buying the pass and just requesting tickets to all the shows? In Chicago it only covers one venue and that venue only has a few eligible shows.
Philly looks kinda meh, but I still might bite on some of those shows.
Orlando blows. Maylene will be coming through, but they’re coming to Gainesville anyway. The LN guys are not taking a hit on this at all. Those guys are professional money-makers and you bet your sweet ass that they have all of the bases covered to make sure their wallets are full at the end of every show. I agree with supporting smaller venues, but sometimes these acts gotta play large ones. To me, it’s up to the bands to play some of the smaller venues eventhough they can fill the large ones. I can’t tell you how cool it is to see that the All That Remains, Lacuna Coil, Maylene tour is playing at the HOB in Orlando AND the tiny club down the street from me (Common Grounds) within a few days of one another. That’s what all metal bands should be doing.
Common Grounds is a great venue. Really good sound for a smaller club.
Nothing for Austin. F this to H.
Metal/Hardcore/Punk have always been genres that struggle against the homogenization that record labels and concert promoters willingly or unwillingly try to impose. I’ve seen WAY too many great, albeit smaller venues have to close their doors because they couldn’t compete financially with the big boys. These kind of clubs are too important to the identity of the scene in their respective cities. Support your local venue!
nothing for Detroit. no suprise
Live nation is one of the worst ticket companys around. And the fact that it does not guarantee you an entry can cause some serious problems. Fuck this mess waiting to happen
So, even though LIvenation supports the venue that’s going to have Dethklok/Mastodon and Megadeth later this year, the only concerts I can use the passport on is Blues Travelers and David Allen Coe. Great.
Not that I care but stryper isnt even on the list of the NY shows. I’d like to stay tuned to see what shows may get added but i probably won’t…
live nation sucks. their “ticket charge” basically doubles the price. a 15 dollar ticket is suddenly 35 after their charges. total bullshit.
Here is the big ol’ asterisk:
* Venue list subject to change. Participating shows and venues. Based on availability. Parking not included. Cannot be combined with other offers. The Live Nation Passport is good for one person only and does not guarantee entry.
When will people get tired of being screwed over by ticketmaster, livenation, house of blues, etc.?????