Madonna to market music through promoter |
In today’s reading we’re reminded that an increasing number of artists are realizing that the going through the labels isn’t as career-wise as it used to be. Sure, they can get your name out there, but what happens once you are established enough to update fans through your own website, myspace pages and more? That like a virgin singer Madonna is joining the fraternity of artists who are leaving their labels.
[Madonna will be] putting out albums through the promoter rather than the label. There’s no indication if she’s going to use this to free up some music, but the point should be pretty clear. The money is in concerts and merchandise — the stuff that the music makes valuable — not in the music itself
I bolded the Techdirt part about the money being in concerts and merchandise. So true. This week FedX stops by and delivers two of these beauties:
The tickets we bought for the upcoming December 3 Van Halen show have arrived, oh yeah! First time I’ve ever done biz with a secondary ticket broker because, no surprise, Ticketmaster was cleaned out in minutes. I’ll have more on the secondary ticket broker experience once we actually get into the show but so far a smooth process, albeit having to pay a lot more than face value on the tickets.
Getting back to Madonna, what else did I do merely in preparation for the Van Halen concert? Added to our existing collection the missing Van Halen CDs ($cha-ching$). Ordered the last CD, the two CD Best of set through an Amazon seller earlier this week. I’m sure at the Van Halen concert on December 3 we’ll be buying at least one very over-priced T-shirt.
Add all this up and the band is seeing some cash, Stubhub is nailing us by swooping in and buying up the tickets and the retailers and Amazon for selling us the CDs to round out our collection. Would we have done any of this if Van Halen wasn’t touring? Probably not. Heck, they didn’t even release any new material for this tour! Talk about promotional.
Madonna might be a lot of things, but she’s no dumb business lady. Neither is the Van Halen camp.
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That’s exactly why I’ve given up on large concerts.
I’d love to see The Police or Halen but what’s the use if I can’t actually see them when they play.
It could be anyone on stage and I’d never know the difference unless I somehow ended up with floor seats.
Small to mid-sized venues are where I choose to spend my money nowadays.
At least you can see how a band interacts and what kind of instruments they are playing.
Maybe I’ll even get to see the next Halen or Police before the world figures out how great they are.
Comment by Wayne — October 11, 2007 @ 4:38 pm PST
Thats a pretty smart move. This way she can keep more of the profit. (As if she needs it). It reminds me of the radiohead stunt where they were selling their new album online only, with no DRM. Apparently Nine Inch Nails is got a similar idea. It must be the way of the future.
One of the good things about this is that the newer albums are on the same playing field as garage bands who have had their stuff online because it’s cheaper. This sure will make artists more competitive in the market. They all have to compete to get their names and music out there. Except for already established artists of course.
Comment by ^Lestat — October 11, 2007 @ 6:47 pm PST
For anyone planning on attending the Van Halen tour - No worries - there were tickets available at face value and below outside the venue in Charlotte on opening night.
Here in Cleveland, had a friend that bought a 75 dollar face ticket for 30 bucks…..and beyond that, Live Nation released tickets for the show a week or so before the show, and also on the day of the show. Case in point for that, they did the same thing on the day of the show for both Sheryl Crow (got third row) and Dream Theater (got 4th row). Particularly with a lot of the bands that are holding tickets back, either for ticket packages, or fan clubs….the unsold tickets from those blocks wind up on sale closer to show date….and that is happening, particularly with the VH shows.
I paid less than face outside the venue for Genesis, which sold out here in Cleveland in minutes….so what I have learned more and more for a large venue show like the above…no need to buy tickets in advance, if the timing is bad financially….you can get em closer to, or day of the show.
All of that being said, you will have a great time - it’s a great show, and it’s great to see Eddie back on top of his game with this tour.
And p.s. - it made me pull out my VH both Roth AND Hagar on the day after the show…..
Comment by Matt Wardlaw — October 12, 2007 @ 6:58 am PST
Soo… Does this mean for any NEW music from Madonna, (and other artists who do this)the online music services (iTunes, Napster, Yahoo, etc.) will EACH have to negotiate separately with the artist to get their music? The advantage of the Music companies has been negotiating for whole catalogues under their control…
Comment by FranciscoIV — October 12, 2007 @ 8:27 am PST
That’s interesting, Matt. I met a guy at the Mariners game who told me he never buys tickets in advance of events. He just shows up and makes a sign saying he needs tickets and usually buys them at or below face value. From good cents, er sense, point of view that makes sense, although I don’t know that I’d want to show up at the venue ticketless. Guess I’m the type of mark these secondary ticket vendors are hoping for.
Comment by TDavid — October 12, 2007 @ 8:30 am PST
FranciscoIV - would hope the various music services will offer artists some easy online ability to give permission and share in the revenues for their music being shared. A master licensing bureau for independent artists might be a good idea or maybe embed the licensing data in the metadata (of course nothing to prevent somebody from editing that out). Most the artists have official websites, it seems like it should be secure to tag songs from the official website for the various music services to check.
Comment by TDavid — October 12, 2007 @ 8:37 am PST