Where or Where Has the Music Business Gone? Where, Oh, Where Could it Be?

I cringe just as I hear the apartment door close loudly behind me. Quickly dropping my jacket and bag onto a nearby table, I rush to the kitchen, throw on an apron, and tie my hair into a bun. It’s 5 PM, I’ve just arrived home from work, and I’ve got 30 minutes or so to prepare dinner for the family. Still in a skirt and heels, I’m chopping up cucumbers and tomatoes on one side of the kitchen, while waiting for the water to boil at the stove. I glance at the calendar hanging in front of me, almost forgetting that it was already Thursday—Thursday, December 20, 2027.

Before I know it, I hear keys wiggling at the front door. My daughter Sabrina storms in, yells hello—still not understanding that speaking with her ears plugged with music equals screaming on the top of her lungs—and runs to her room. At 13 years old, Sabrina’s got a regular routine; she gets home, changes out of her school clothing, and plugs her mobile device into her computer—transferring all the songs she downloaded while in school that day onto her hard drive. Five minutes later, she comes out of her room, jumps onto a kitchen chair, and chirps, “What’s up mom? What are you making?” Before I can answer, she begins playing around with our digital kitchen countertop and asks, “Wait, mom, do you remember how I can order soda from the iKitchen store again?”

Ah, the frustration of raising a kid growing up in the 2020s. I remind her that we have plenty of juice and water in the refrigerator, and then ask her how her day at school went. “Well,” she began, “we actually learned something really interesting in history class today. Mom, is it true that when you were a kid, people would pay for music?” I laugh and ask, “Well how do you think all of mine and dad’s CDs sitting in the den got there in the first place?” Sabrina looks at me sort of cock-eyed and says, “Um, I don’t know. I guess I thought…” And from there a springboard of questions came pouring out of my daughter’s inquisitive brain…You mean that if I wanted to hear High School Musical 23 then I would have had to use my babysitting money to buy it? Wait, you mean Lily Allen wasn’t always in Converse commercials and on Converse.com—and she wasn’t always part of the Converse logo? Does that mean that if I wanted to hear Rihanna’s newest single, I would have to wait till I got home and then wait for the radio to play the song—wait, are radios those things that sort of look like funny boxes that are in some of your old pictures, mom?

Back to Reality: Year 2007

I know that might have seemed like a strange way to begin this assignment, but I really think we need to think a little crooked and kooky in order to think straight. We have to think of the extreme case scenario for the long-term future in order to think of the practical scenario in the immediate future. We all know music is taking a radical turn somewhere, at some near point in time, but it’s really hard for us to imagine it. Having lived through so many years of the music purchasing world, it’s hard to even comprehend what a whole new restructuring of the music business might look like.

I know that when I entered the music business program at NYU in 2005 as a freshman, myself and all my classmates constantly voiced our frustration with illegal downloading. We talked repeatedly about telling our friends that illegal downloading was wrong and illegal—yet explained how our friends didn’t feel so guilty. Instead they rationalized—“when I usually buy an album, I only end up liking 2 songs, it’s a total rip off!” or “well Britney Spears has a ton of money, why does she need mine!?” or—the best of all—“everyone else is doing it.” Even after explaining to our non-music business friends that illegal downloading was stealing from whole slew of people—artists, songwriters, producers, studio musicians, and all the others—they merely shrugged us off. It’s funny because now that I think about it, we—as music business students—were fighting like the RIAA, just on a smaller scale. Now in 2007, after taking this class and another music business class (Village Records—a class where students perform the functions of a record label), I’m seriously realizing that things are going to drastically change.

Yet there’s still a hesitance. For example, I remember one day in class, we suggested that music might morph into a cable TV-type subscription model. I listened to you talk about perhaps there being different channels that provided different music services. I considered it. I imagined sitting in front of something that looked like a TV, picking up a remote, and turning on a device that allowed me to click to my preferred channel. And the second I envisioned it in my mind, I rejected it—no, that couldn’t possibly happen, I told myself. A subscription model would mean that I wouldn’t really “own” any of my music; instead it would just play and then be stored as a piece of data on my TV-like music device. What was even crazier—the music would probably be deleted if I ended my subscription with the music service! I got a little sad thinking about all this—I couldn’t imagine music materializing into a service like that. All I really wanted was to be able to hold my music in my hands—to flip through the lyrics and be able to have that full-album listening experience.

Each time I try to imagine music being delivered in a different form, there’s a block and I feel some sort of resistance. So I figured the best way to approach this is to use my imagination. I’m going to try my best to focus on several trends and models within the industry and ponder their strengths and weakness, as well as try to anticipate what may happen if implemented. At this point, no idea or stretch of the imagination is outrageous. Again, it’s important to think a little crooked before think straight.

Case Study: Emusic

Emusic is currently the second biggest online music site—after iTunes. That’s quite an accomplishment. Emusic offers a combination of the subscription model (such as Napster) and the a-la-carte model (such as iTunes.) Users pay a monthly subscription and can download a certain number of MP3 files a month (that means DRM-free files) from the eMusic catalog, which is increasingly growing.

I signed up for eMusic sometime during freshman year. I cancelled my subscription a month or two later. Why? Well, the human mind works kind of strangely. While eMusic offered a decent price tag, an appropriate filteration of music, and flexibility with MP3 files, I still wanted the option of downloading anything I wanted! I valued eMusic’s function as a filter; though the site contained a limited amount of R&B and hip hop (the type of music I find that I gravitate towards), I was able to discover a lot of world music that interested me. Ultimately, the human mind—or at least my mind—wants a filter, but at the same time wants everything! Little insatiable me…

Trend Study: Company Sponsorships, Brand Alliances, and Licensing

In class we offered the idea that perhaps future musicians would be supported by some sort of company. With the decline of recorded music sales, musicians would sustain a livelihood through corporate sponsorships. A company would be willing to pay artists because they believed an alliance with the musician’s brand would be beneficial to them as a company. Additionally, the company would be willing to pay the money in order to license the musician’s songs in different advertising ventures; as we’ve seen throughout the semester, the power of music in commercials, movies, and TV is incredibly powerful.

At the same time, artist-friendly sites like Pandora.com believe very strongly in helping create a music landscape in which musicians can support themselves. Although the site is a tiny pocket of the industry, it doesn’t hurt to look at how Pandora has structured itself. The site doesn’t charge consumers for their usage, rather is ad-supported as well as investment-supported. In this way, musicians are able to get their royalties from streams on Pandora’s online personalized radio.

Pandora’s model is a great success story and is effective in its function as a small pocket within the industry. However, it seems that in the grander scale of things, revenue made through sites like Pandora only represents ancillary income for the musician. Another great opportunity for musicians is the chance to license their music to film and ad companies. Though, it still seems to me like this revenue is still ancillary income and that it cannot be the focal strategy for an artist. Or could touring + licensing music provide a sustainable income? Perhaps for some musicians, but certainly not for all; I keep wondering how hip hop will sustain itself when its acts tour less and additionally are not coveted for licensing deals because of much sampling clearance.

Though, let’s not be so pessimistic about all this. What if musicians do end up sustaining themselves through partnerships with companies? What if an artist like Amy Winehouse ends up partnering with a Budweiser type company? Will Winehouse then need to reference Budweiser in her songs or have them appear in her videos? Is that something that will turn fans off? Is that likely to even happen?

Trend Study: Ad-based Models

While SpiralFrog* is fading into obscurity, it doesn’t seem like RcrdLbl will. When SpiralFrog announced its free legal downloading ad-supported site, a bunch of my music business friends and I were psyched—until we heard that we’d have to watch short ads before “purchasing” our songs.** That wasn’t it—we wouldn’t even be “purchasing” the songs really; instead the songs would be uploaded onto our computers, but then had the potentiality to disappear if we didn’t log on to SpiralFrog within a month (to see their ads, essentially.)

RcrdLbl seems to have the right idea—functioning as an online record label, offering artists advances, and then offering the artists’ music for free, all of course being supported by the ads on the site. I like this idea and think it’s really innovative. Though, it sort of makes me wonder whether there will ever come a point where advertisers will become a strong force in influencing which artists RcrdLbl chooses to sign.

It seems to me that traditional radio is so lackluster and dull these days because advertisers have such an influence and are pushing radio stations to play the same tracks over and over again to ensure higher ratings. This also leads me to think of all the other forms of media which operate on ads. For one, newspapers that charge anywhere from a dollar to zero cents make their profit from advertising, as do magazines and as does television. Will the newspaper model work for the music business?

Funny Anomaly: Japan

Sometime last year, I was sitting in my friend’s dorm, hanging out, looking through her iTunes library. I noticed that she had a nice and diverse array of music and asked her where she got her music from. She laughed and said that over the summer, she had gotten most of her music in Japan. She went on to explain that CD rental stores were pretty common in Japan; consumers would go into the stores, rent whatever CDs they wanted, burn the music onto their computers, and return the CDs. It was common knowledge that consumers were doing so; often rental stores offered CD-Rs themselves! My friend, Wenjia, explained to me that she discovered pretty cool music this way. She excitedly showed off some of her collection.

When this happened I was still in my illegal-downloading-is-bad stage and I was disappointed to see that such things were commonplace in Japan. Another sign that the music industry was doomed, I had thought. Yet what I completely missed was the excitement on Wenjia’s face when she showed her collection to me, when she told me that she was now beginning to like jazz—a genre she had never touched before!

This Japanese anomaly presents a new approach—give people what they want. So, what do people want? Then, we need to consider, when exactly will the buck—or yen—come swinging by?


Talk to the People!

I spoke to some of my NYU non-music business friends about their relationship to music, and here are some of the things I heard:

* “I’ve never downloaded illegally. If I want to buy music, I’ll buy it off of iTunes. I’ll even by a full album if I know I won’t have enough time to go into the store and purchase it.” –Gracie, 20 years old, Italian major
* “I’ve never really bought music before or went to a performance that I can remember. I love to sing, but I don’t listen to music.” –Jacob, 20 years older, Vocal Performance major
* “I don’t think I’ve ever bought an album. I like buying singles—if I hear something on the radio, I’ll buy it through iTunes. Before I never really wanted to buy an album because it would be annoying—I just wanted the single, not all the other songs….I guess I just really buy musical soundtracks. Oh, and recently I bought the Garden State soundtrack—I watched the movie and I liked the music so I bought it.” – Erica, 21 years old, Social Work major
* “I used to listen to a lot of music when I was younger, with the radio and all. Now I don’t really—it’s just much harder to find music these days…though, I did get really excited when my boyfriend Jared bought me my first Beatles CD—he built it up so much for me, and the packaging was really cool and everything.” –Yvette, 20 years old, Psychology and English minor
* “I like music, but I don’t really care to know what artist I’m listening to…I like music because of the mood it puts me in…sometimes I go to AOL Radio and just click on the classical music button and listen…sometimes music makes me feel as if I’m in a different era or generation.” –Tamar, 21 years old, Psychology and Art Studio minor
* “I like hip hop because of the way it makes me feel. It makes me feel confident, it totally pumps me up. It’s great music to listen to on the way to an interview.” –Doug, 24 years old, NYU Medical School
* “Why would I pay for something that I could get for free?” –Matt, 23 years old, NYU alumnus, Finance, Accounting, and Economics major

These are so many points of views! These quotes personify so many customer personas and I think it’s really hard to clearly understand this question—who is our target audience? Is the music industry trying to sell to a specific persona? How much are they thinking about what people want?

Where Does the Buck Come In?

If our last interviewee asks why he should pay for something that is free, then we need to really consider this question: what are people willing to pay for? Through that we can understand what they value and how to deliver on that value.

The following is a chart I put together to delineate this though process.

Conclusions

I came up with more items for the “thing people are willing to pay for” column than for the “things people aren’t willing to pay for” column. I think that’s a great sign. It signifies that while the record industry is practically dead, the music industry has a grand opportunity to survive and thrive. As far as my chart, I would say that the music device category has very little room for entry due to the iPod’s mass appeal. However, the concert sector and the cell-phone-plus-music-bundle sector seem to be places the consumer is willing to spend its money, therefore areas in which the music industry has opportunity.

I do believe that within the next five years or so the industry will restructure itself to wean off of the recorded product and instead place focus on live performances, licensing, and providing consumers with essentially free music with some sort of cost (whether it be a service, a bundle-like item, or a filtering system.) The industry just needs to do it right.

* SpiralFrog's business model has changed since I wrote this essay in the Fall of 2007. They have made deals with several labels, most recently with EMI. The site has also garnered more than a million registered users and five million monthly unique visitors.

** Correction: SpiralFrog members do not have to watch ads before downloading songs. Instead, users see banner ads that do not interfere with their music listening.

The Ditty Bop's Marketing Approach

THE FOLLOWING IS AN ANALYSIS OF THE DITTY BOP'S SUCCESSFUL MARKETING STRATEGY, WITH REFERENCES MADE TO MALCOLM GLADWELL'S CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED "THE TIPPING POINT"...

Abby DeWald and Amanda Barrett make up the Ditty Bops. They’re not the typical artists you’d expect a major label to sign. They’re quirky—either performing songs in 1920s-style attire, in carrot and artichoke costumes, or in plastic-shopping-bag bikinis. They’re active environmentalists—discarding the tour bus idea for their cross-country 2006 summer tour, opting instead to travel on bicycles. And their music rests completely out of the mainstream music box—a fusion of jazz, cabaret, swing, and ragtime. It comes as no surprise that after releasing two full-length albums with Warner Music, the Ditty Bops ended their contract and self-released an EP, Pack Rat, in early 2007. With or without a major label, the harmony-singing duo has been
successful in creating a compelling artist image and garnering a fair amount of media
buzz and word-of-mouth talk.

The girls originally met each other five years ago while playing in a 1920s cover band together (KCRW). When deciding to form the Ditty Bops, the girls brought along much of the antics they had experimented with while performing in the cover band. For example, their live performances are known to feature multiple costume changes, skits, vaudeville-like theatrics, and even puppet shows. Ditty Bop performances are not meant solely for the performance of songs, but to present a more visual experience.

We spent a lot of class time discussing how we would be creative in constructing our own artist’s marketing campaign. In one class, you asked us if we were fans of music. We looked at you as if you were crazy, wondering why you would be asking us such a question. You proceeded to then ask us if we thought the rest of the population were music fans like us, and if not, how then we would get these people excited about our artists. You encouraged us to stop complaining—whether it be about the majority of people illegally downloading music or the general lethargy the general population had towards music—and just make innovative ideas!

The Ditty Bops have fearlessly taken risks in order to connect with their audience. In fact, for last year’s bicycle tour the girls encouraged their fans to join them in biking from city to city. They even offered discounts at the door to their shows if anyone arrived on a bike (Swartz). By doing this the Ditty Bops were not only promoting environmentally-conscious behavior, but they were also providing an opportunity for fans to feel connected to their music and simultaneously, to a greater cause.

What is intriguing about this tactic is not only that the Ditty Bops were personally inviting their fans to bike with them (though that is certainly unique), but that they weren’t afraid to innovate in regards to the model of live performance. What is amazing about their approach is their ability to take one of the most powerful elements of the concert experience—the communal aspect—and enhance it. By inviting fans to bike to concerts, fans could enjoy the Ditty Bops’ music but also do something positive for the environment together. I could just imagine the feeling of devoted fans biking to their desired venues, just to see the sight of several dozen other devoted fans with their bikes.

What makes the Ditty Bops such a successful act is the strength of their imaging. They make sure to depict themselves as more than musicians. On their website, they take great care to reveal different sides of their personalities. By scanning the website, fans can learn that both members of the Ditty Bops have a love for cooking through looking at their personal recipes. Fans can also learn that the girls have an interest in visual arts by clicking to see Abby’s artwork or the girls’ self-made cartoons. This Business of Artist Management advises managers to assess their artists from all sides—sound, image, songwriting ability, charisma, and personality (Frascogna 83). The authors of the book imply that fans want both good music and a distinct personality. In my opinion, people tend to gravitate towards artists whom they can relate to, whom they feel similar towards, and whom they think values what they do. It is important for managers to flesh out their artist’s image in a way that leaves room for a fan to personally identify.

The Ditty Bops aptly express themselves through their website. They provide content that is very personalized and honest. Their content includes a biography, audio, lyrics, photos, video, art images, live show schedules, a discussion forum, a list of their favorite recipes, a store, links to various websites, and more. It’s not just what they offer on their website, but it’s clearly how it’s offered. For example, audio from their past two albums is available from the “Ditty Bop Jukebox,” which proves to be a memorable graphic (also consistent with their 1920s theme) and a practical way for fans to sample music. Again, the Ditty Bops offer what most artist websites offer, but deliver the content in a clever and personal way. Instead of attaching mere text files with their lyrics, they choose to include hand-written lyrics. Along the same line, instead of providing a strict and professional-sounding biography, each Ditty Bop tells their “story” in a very informal way.

"Record Label Marketing" insists that artists need to give their fans something of value on their website (Hutchison 246). The Ditty Bops’ website truly gives fans an insight into the Ditty Bops, which is something a real fan vaulues. At the same time, it is important to continually deliver valuable content to fans, so that they have a reason to return (246). The Ditty Bops do so by updating their cartoon blog titled “The Environmentalist’s Dilemma.” During their summer 2007 tour, the Ditty Bops offered a blog describing their experiences. During their 2006 cross-country bike tour, they offered a cartoon blog of their “adventures on the road.” While the content here is creative and interesting, I noticed that the blogs do not allow for any posting of comments. I’m surprised to see this since the Ditty Bops seem so interactive in every other way.

The Ditty Bops are masters at creating interesting content. Not only are their musical works interestingly and innovatively composed, but their website is distinctive and absurdly clever. In my opinion, the girls have also created an aura around them that is memorable and distinctive. Author of the best-seller The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell would call this quality “stickiness.” Gladwell believes that contagious behavior occurs because of a memorable message that spurs action, the influence of certain types of people, and the general environment in which the message is transmitted through (Gladwell 7). The reason why the Ditty Bops sell out concerts and why they have created such a buzz around themselves is because their sound is unique and memorable, but also because their musical message ties into something that is empowering and encourages action.

A friend of mine recently told me that he thought the green movement was the new take on the hippie movement. While I don’t think the “green” movement is as all-encompassing as the hippie movement was in the 60s and 70s, I do understand what he is implying. There is something about this community that is passionate and particularly active. Being tied to such a cause, that encourages—and essentially needs participation in order to be effective—is a key ingredient in the Ditty Bop’s “stickiness” formula.

In today’s music industry, talent and persistence is not enough to cause a word-of-mouth phenomenon. In fact, today’s music environment does not really allow for a truly “sticky” message to be generated and released. While the Ditty Bops’ music and brand is memorable, hearing music these days doesn’t necessarily spur any sort of immediate purchasing action. In previous days, when music was only to be heard from radio, listeners would hear a good song—essentially a “sticky” message—and be driven to buy the product so that they could own it. Today, music is ubiquitous and readily available—internet radio, podcasts, myspace, TV shows, illegal downloading sites, you name it. No one necessarily needs to take out a dollar bill to hear music anymore.

Because the current musical environment doesn’t naturally stimulate a cause of action, the Ditty Bops’ alliance with the green movement could prove to be very beneficial to them—since the green environment is a context of action and activism. The Ditty Bops have already attempted to accumulate sales from their green-minded fan base. On their website store, their latest album’s picture and lyric book is available on 100% post-consumer waste recycled paper. This would appeal to fans who wished to purchase some exclusive content, but be environmentally friendly at the same time. Perhaps some fans would even be propelled to purchase the item in order to support what they felt to be a worthy cause. The Ditty Bops also offer artist t-shirts that are “sweatshop free.”

An even more impressive item found in their online store is a tote bag that reads “you and I save the world.” The bag is an organic cotton tote, made in the United States and is “printed without the use of PVC (polyvinyl chloride—an environmentally hazardous plastic material used in screen painting.)” Below the image, the Ditty Bops inform their fans that the tote is a product of their own nonprofit organization titled “You and I Save the World.” Though the Ditty Bops are not reaping in any profit from this item, the product is another way to lure fans to their cause, while perhaps simultaneously strengthening their fans love for the music.

Additionally, the tote bags are inherently marketing mechanisms. While a t-shirt would effectively market the Ditty Bops, the tote bag is an accessory that could be worn numerous times, and could even be worn on a daily basis. Firstly, that means there is a great likelihood that the tote-wearer will explain the product—and hopefully the music of the artists who sold it to them—on a daily basis. Such a word-of-mouth style is called a “referral program”—which is a marketing tactic in which tools are created to help fans refer the artist to their friends (Hutchison 232).

The tote bag makes perfect sense. As a girl, I can say that other girls comment on my clothing or/and other accessories I may be wearing on a very regular basis. This is usually just a way to start conversation. Yet the interesting thing here is that when prompted to answer friends—or even strangers—where the bag was from, the “message” would be quite comprehensive and memorable. Perhaps the friend or stranger could be stirred to check out the Ditty Bops for themselves. Secondly, because a bag could be worn on a daily basis—as opposed to t-shirt—the tote-wearer is inherently reminded of the Ditty Bops on a daily basis. And even if the tote bag becomes less special to the fan as time goes on, she will be reminded of the Ditty Bops each tine a person asks her what bag she’s wearing.

The Ditty Bops’ online store is an effective way of making revenue in a bit of a crazed moment in the music industry, as it is also an effective way to promote a word-of-mouth phenomenon, and a great way to continually connect with fans. What’s missing from this portion of the marketing scheme, and is something I would recommend to the Ditty Bops, is a viral component to their word-of-mouth spreading. There is nothing on their website that a fan could send another fan digitally. Though the videos are from youtube, fans can’t share videos through the Ditty Bops website. Though I feel the tote bag concept is a great approach to word-of-mouth marketing, there definitely needs to be a digital parallel to that idea.
The Ditty Bops are doing a lot of things right. They’ve got their musical craft together, their live performances are creative and interactive, their brand is strong and memorable, and they’ve aligned themselves with an environmental context that is active in nature. My only concern is that perhaps their cause will triumph their music. A lot of their media coverage is centered on their advances as environmentalists or other crazy antics they’ve pulled to better preserve the environment. And sometimes that’s fine—their intriguing story is likely to grab a person’s attention. Perhaps that person will google “Ditty Bops” and happen to listen to some of their music, and then prove to be a devoted fan. No publicity is bad publicity.

Additionally, the “cause marketing” works in this case because the relationship is authentic; the Ditty Bops truly care about the environment and work to preserve it. Essentially, it would be hard to separate their music from their environmentalism because it so closely defines who they are as people.
What we learn from the case study of the Ditty Bops is that a relationship as fluid as this, between artist and cause, is what an up-and-coming artist should strive for. Not every musical artist is meant to be aligned with a cause and not every musical artist may be so passionate about many other disciplines outside of music. However, it is important to recognize that this relationship—the Ditty Bops and the green movement—is natural and that it works. In a music industry environment that seems to perhaps be moving towards a model where an artist is “sponsored” by a corporation, it is important to remember that authenticity is apparent and something artificial is transparently clear in the eyes of the public.

Referential Analysis of "Mr. Sandman" by the Four Aces

Even before the words “Mister Sandman” are uttered and the Four Aces begin singing their harmonies, the beginning melody—played on what sounds to be a xylophone—seems to imply a distinctive cheerfulness. I picture the men in the group smiling while singing, revealing pearly white teeth, and perhaps waving striped hats above their heads in joviality. The singers sound like they might be skipping through the streets of their quiet neighborhood, much like Gene Kelly did in the 1952 movie Singing in the Rain. In addition, the ongoing drums featured give the song a constant marching feel.

The song sounds colorful and bright, happy and chirpy, as well as clean and sparkling. It brings to mind a storyboard of images, but especially conjures a summer day in a suburban town in the 1950s. The bells heard throughout the song sound like an ice cream truck driving through the neighborhood on a sunny day. The ice cream truck seems to be stopping at different parks and playgrounds, selling various flavors of ice cream, brightening the faces of the town children.

At the same time, the song makes me picture teenagers making their way to the nearest diner, in groups of five or so. They too seem to be skipping through the streets, soaking in the freedom of their homework-free summer. As they walk, one teenager, in complete excitement, mentions which tasty shake he wishes to order once he arrives at the diner. Soon enough the group reaches their destination, where they are greeted by smiling waiters, seated in stools, and given the chance to finally slurp those refreshing shakes.

“Mister Sandman” not only refers to a happy and warm summer day, but it refers to a specific cultural moment—a moment of post-war tranquility and completion of family structure (with soldiers returning home to their families.) In addition, this culture is the first to usher in a suburban lifestyle of quiet and relative calm, as it also interestingly takes to the new medium of television. The culture also valued wholesomeness, propriety, and conservatism; this is reflected in what the Four Aces request in the woman of their dreams—“complexion like peaches and cream,” and “lips like roses and clover”—as opposed to what a contemporary songwriter might ask for in a woman. The upbeat and bright nature of this song captures what was so defining about this cultural moment in time.

Historical Analysis- "Why (Am I Treated So Bad)" by the Staples Singers

The album “Freedom Highway,” released in 1965 as a live in-church session, set the stage for the gospel family act, The Staple Singers. The album included old African American spiritual songs, as well as new compositions—one being the bluesy track “Why (Am I Treated So Bad.)” On this track, “Pops” Staples—the patriarch of the family—alternates between his falsetto singing and his steady sermon-giving speaking voice, while his daughters smoothly harmonize the repeated chorus. While the song has a happy up-tempo feel, with the sisters clapping all the way through, the lyrics are filled with feelings of deep frustration. The sisters lament over baseless hate—“I’ve done nobody wrong, but I’m treated so bad,” as they brush off promises of hope—“things are going to change, still I’m treated so bad.”

These lyrics resonated strongly during this period of the civil rights movement—a peaceful resistance against discrimination towards African American citizens, led by leaders like Martin Luther King Jr. The song was released in a time and place where segregation prevailed; public places like theaters, hotels, bathrooms, and water fountains were segregated. African Americans encountered signs that read “for whites only” on a daily basis, having to be reminded of their second class citizenship repeatedly. This second class status even prevented many African Americans from voting, whether through tactics like literacy tests or poll taxes.

In a time where racism was commonplace in American policy and inherent in American culture, the rhetorical question the Staple Singers rose, “why am I treated so bad,” was incredibly powerful. What particularly struck Pops about the state of the black man—and what essentially led him to write this track—was the rejection and refusal the “Little Rock Nine” received in 1957 when the nine high school children attempted to enter a white school in Little Rock, Arkansas. Though the Supreme Court called for desegregation in 1954, in addition to the school board having allowed the registration of the nine black children, the children were nevertheless blocked from entering the school, as they were also spat on and harassed for two weeks. Mavis Staples, Pop’s daughter and lead singer of the act, describes the way in which her and her family were watching the news in the living room and how her father had laid back in his reclining chair and said, “Now why they doin that? Why they treatin ‘em like that? Why they treatin ‘em so bad?” She explained that her father started writing the song right then.

The song actually became Martin Luther King Jr.’s favorite Staple Singers song. Pops had met Martin Luther King Jr. and suggested that the group join the movement by performing; apparently Pops came home and told the family, “If he can preach it, we can sing it.” The Staple Singers did indeed join the movement, creating quite a soundtrack for the civil rights movement, with other powerful songs like “When Will We Get Paid?”—another rhetorical question that demanded reparations for the exploitation of African Americans during slavery. The Staple Singers also joined the movement with white folk singers like Bob Dylan and Joan Baez. In fact, in August of 1963, both Dylan and Baez performed in Martin Luther King Jr.’s march on Washington DC, before Dr. King gave his famous “I Have a Dream” speech. At that performance, Baez performed “Oh Freedom,” a song the black slaves used to sing. In this song, Baez delicately sings “and before I’ll be a slave, I’ll be buried in my grave, and go home to my Lord and be free.” At a certain point in the song, Baez sings “And there’s no more moaning, there’s no more moaning, no more moaning over me.” Interestingly enough, during Pop’s sermon-like interlude in “Why (Am I Treated So Bad),” Pop tells of asking his parents what the word “moaning” meant. His parents answered him, “Oh, when you moan, the devil doesn’t even know what you’re talking about.”

This moan could be heard in “Oh Freedom,” somehow preserved through the lyrics of the slave song. At the same time, Pop’s mention of the moaning and his telling of the story from his childhood presents this idea of the moan as a sort of backdrop of his life—something that was inherent in his surroundings that he couldn’t help but notice as a child. This moan, though created and preserved through the slave songs, has extended to the music of the civil rights movement. The Staple Singers’ “Why (Am I Treated So Bad),” as well as other music from the civil rights movement, contains this moan, this sound of suffering, pain, burden, and death.

State of the Music Industry 2006

THIS IS A SHORT ESSAY I WROTE ABOUT THE STATE OF THE MUSIC INDUSTRY IN THE FALL OF 2006.

Statistics really put everything into perspective. In this case particularly, these statistics quiet the public’s anxious cries that the music business is dying with the onset of music downloading. It’s important to realize that the consumer market is not decreasing, but that it’s shifting. Though RIAA’s 2005 Consumer Profile notes a 10% decrease for years 1996 to 2005, in record stores being the channel for consumers, it is important to realize that in the year 2005, the internet was 8% of the consumer music channel and music download was another 6%. Together, the internet and music download add up to 14%, making up for that 10% decline. The digital music market is the new, alternate avenue for purchasing music, though it still is not the dominant one; physical CDs (full-length) are still 87% of the market.

One way in which the market has not changed since I was a kid is the fact that singles are still highly in demand. I remember being about twelve years old and making my almost daily trip to Sam Goody to see what new singles came out. Not only was I attracted to that aisle because I wanted to buy that “it” song that had just been played over the radio 100 times, but because singles were cheap and affordable for a kid like me. I even remember buying my friends CD singles for their birthday, to the extent that everyone always looked forward to their birthdays, because I always found the coolest CD single for them. Because of these memories, it is not surprising to me to look at statistics for 1999 and see that 56 million CD singles were sold. This desire for acquiring CD singles is still very much present, though it has shifted to the digital download market, which sold 367 million singles in 2005. What’s interesting to see is that sales for downloaded albums are not nearly as much as the single downloads market, in fact they’re at a mere 13 million in 2005. Why are consumers more willing to buy their albums in a record store and buy singles online? Why hasn’t the trend gone through with digital album sales? It would be real interesting to me to find out what the numbers are for which age group is buying physical albums and which age group is downloading digital singles of if there really is a discernable difference. From my vantage point, I think real fans buy albums, while radio pop listeners turn to iTunes to grab a hold of the newest radio single. Speaking of age, it is incredibly interesting to see that the largest bulk (25% of the market) of consumers is adults 45+. That statistic alone reveals a lot. It seems that the average younger adult is too busy to actively listen to music, being tied up in either developing their career or in chasing after their kids in the house. It also explains why physical sales are still the major fraction of music sales, selling about 700 million albums in 2005; adults above 45 are less likely to log onto iTunes and download the latest album, even if it is one of their old favorites. In addition, one would think that the teenage age group consumes the most music, but they only buy about 12%. And the teenager/lower twenties group music consumption has decreased about 5% since 1996 and I’m convinced it has to do with the fact that most college students get most of their music illegally—either through whatever’s left of the P2P services or rTunes, a service that allows students to upload playlists from classmates in their network.

As music business people, we need to decide whether we want to adapt to this market or try developing ways to expand sales in places that are weaker. For example, is it smarter to target that 45 plus age group? Is it smarter to continue feeding into this singles-market because we see the success of the digital singles market? Or should the music industry develop music service sites that target teens, helping them draw away from illegal sites, and maybe encourage digital album sales (through bonuses like an additional music video.) I think the industry is doing a good job in balancing both acts. Obviously there is still an emphasis on physical goods, but there is also that innovation through digital websites to make downloading a more appealing process. For example, eMusic is an example of a website that operates for an indie audience, allowing members to discover new music, while buying music as well. There lies the hook—it is not just an alternate way to buy music, but a way to discover music, and find recordings you’ve never heard before.

On a different note, I sometimes think that with the new digital trends, consumers are actually more confused, and maybe that is why physical sales are still much greater than digital sales. iTunes is the only service that is simple and clear. You want music, you pay 99 cents or $9.99 for an album, and you got it. The subscription-based music sites, though being a great deal for great music fans, is complicated—allowing members to listen to as much music as they want, but obliging them to pay for each track if they want to transfer the music to a portable device (not an iPod of course) or a CD-R. Over the past couple of months, I’ve been flipping back and forth from service to service, not completely satisfied with any of them. I originally signed up to Rhapsody, not caring that it was not compatible with an iPod (figuring I would download tracks onto CDs), and then later found out that I needed to pay in addition to the $10 a month fee to actually obtain songs. I felt as if I was misled to thinking that the $10 covers everything because it was never explicitly said that each track would cost me money. I’m not sure if many people went through the same process, but I feel like that’s a definite drawback.

Since I am a college student and I have to be careful with the amount of music I spend on music, I will most likely buy an album that I really want from a store and only listen/stream music online through websites like AOL Music (that allows anyone to stream full albums for free), Pandora, Free Napster (which allows users to listen to any song 3 times in entirety), Free Rhapsody (users can listen to 25 songs each month for free.) (Even Facebook, the college networking website, allows certain members to get a free music sampler from iTunes.)

The Internet definitely allows me to discover more music than I possibly could have years ago. I am definitely more able to go back in time slightly and really appreciate music from earlier decades (whether its songs from the Beach Boys I had never heard before, or songs from the American band The Byrds, to whether it’s discovering that a song I thought was originally written by an artist of my time really was taken from a 60s artist.) But I don’t necessarily know if more music necessarily translates into better quality music or a better listening experience.

The Internet definitely makes the whole music listening/buying process a little more quick and less special. No longer is there that moment of suspense for that first note, the first breath of a voice, like there is when buying a new CD and placing it into a stereo. Wow, that’s quite a moment. I wonder if most people can say that about placing their cursor on a song title and clicking “purchase.”

Branding Dallin

IN THE SPRING OF MY SOPHOMORE YEAR, I TOOK A CLASS WHICH FOCUSED ON ARTIST BRANDING. FOR OUR FINAL ASSIGNMENT, WE HAD TO WORK WITH AN ARTIST AND CREATE A VIABLE AND ENGAGING BRANDING PLAN AND STRATEGY FOR THE ARTIST. HERE'S THE BRANDING REPORT WE CREATED:

I. Personal Brand Statement
Dallin is a powerful singer/songwriter, who can sit behind her piano, yet still fully reach out to her audience at the same time. Her music is filled with lyrical intricacies, which cry through her soulful yet gritty voice.

II. Brand Essence- Approachable

III. Brand Essence Rationale- On stage, Dallin
is one with her audience. She is not singing to them, but singing with them. Her strong value of the audience is what propels the audience to her. Offstage, Dallin is certainly a more subdued character than her passionately rocking artist persona, yet that same element of warmth and approachability is present. Dallin’s inviting aura—through both her music and her personality—is what sets her apart.

IV. Similar Artists- Fiona Apple, Cat Power, Joss Stone, Natalie Merchant, Sarah McLachlan, Sarah Brandeis, and Madi Diaz.

V. Dallin's Selling Points

* APPROACHABILITY- Incorporation of the audience
* COMPLEX & MYSTERIOUS CHARACTER: MULTI-LAYERED
* WELL-PRODUCED AND SELF-PRODUCED MUSICIAN
* ORGANIC
* FUSION
* STRONG VISUAL ELEMENT
* MATURE APPEAL
* POP SENSIBILITY, MAINSTREAM APPEAL

VI. "Model" Obituary

Icon known for relationship with fans

ANDREW NUSCA
BRANDING NEWS SERVICE

Dallin Applebaum, the innovative singer and pianist whose combinations of soul and electronica changed the face of pop music, has died. She was 78.

Applebaum died Sunday morning in her home in New York City, her publicist said. The cause was complications from a long bout with lung cancer.

Known for inviting audiences on stage with her, Applebaum first rose to national fame with her 2009 recording of “Chelsea Morning,” which gained traction after significant airplay on Philadelphia public radio station WXPN.

Singer Seth Kallen said in a written statement that Applebaum was a “true original.”

“She was a wonderful girl, full of honesty and compassion,” he said. “She will be missed.”

Applebaum was born in Fort Washington, Pennsylvania, on January 21, 1986 to a lawyer and a marketing executive. Applebaum began studying classical piano at age five, and despite being born with cysts on her vocal chords, Applebaum began singing to her music. She graduated Upper Dublin High School in 2004 and moved to New York the following summer to attend New York University for music technology. There, she started playing solo shows at local venues in Greenwich Village and Philadelphia, including The Bitter End and World Café Live. She also joined lounge fusion band Funky Butter in December 2006 with classmates and had a minor radio hit with the single, “Hard Day in the Rain.”

Applebaum toured regularly as a solo artist and with the band until her graduation from NYU in 2008, when she was hired by Avatar Studios as a studio assistant. Overheard singing one night by Avatar engineer Fred Kevorkian, Applebaum was given the chance to record her first full-length, Polaroid Memory, after her shifts. Applebaum peddled the album to record labels, and based off the strength of her live show and the single “Chelsea Morning,” Columbia Records signed her to a contract.

After playing a series of local shows in New York and Philadelphia, Applebaum recorded the album “Keys” in 2011 in a one week homecoming session in Philadelphia. Off the strength of the hit single “Deeds Done,” Applebaum eventually sold 300,000 copies and claimed major airplay on internet radio. She embarked on an 18-date sold-out tour the following year with Rufus Wainwright, and won the Grammy award for best new artist of that year.

Columbia released Live at the World Café Live in 2012, which featured a cover of Radiohead’s, “No Surprises.”

Applebaum was taken under the wing of pop multi-instrumentalist Jon Brion in late 2014 to record the album Worn Weary. The album was met with critical and commercial success and Applebaum went on to win 3 Grammy awards, including best female vocal for the title track of the album, in 2015.

The following year, her version of The Postal Service’s “Such Great Heights” with Silverchair’s Daniel Johns was used for the “Save a Child” HIV/AIDS awareness effort.

She married Funky Butter guitarist Daniel Tirer in May 2016.

In late 2017, Applebaum struck an unprecedented dual distribution deal with Columbia and Caribou Coffee to distribute her EP, Indre Sessions Vol. 1, and went on a 32-date theater tour across the nation, co-headlining with Fiona Apple.

In 2018, Applebaum released Ink Blots, which broke the Top 10 with the hits “At Peace” and “The Hours.” A 60-date world tour followed.

Following the tour, Applebaum made appearances on albums by John Mayer, Amos Lee and Muse and contributed to the soundtrack of Paul Thomas Anderson’s 2019 film Figari.

In 2020, Applebaum decided to record an album of experimental electronica, Modern Sounds in Life, which was received with critical acclaim but failed to make a big splash commercially. That same year, Applebaum published a book of her poems entitled, “Scrawl Searching,” and had a minor role in the film “Deserted.” She also started her own record label, Alchemany, which signed keyboard prodigy Jack Samuels.

Through the years, Applebaum continued to experiment with different kinds of music and had minor hits, including “Speakeasy” and “Cop Out.” She also continued to work with new artists, including jazz artist Brock Daniels and R&B songstress Leona Gardner, and was integral in using her label to spearhead the creation of a new Philly “scene.” She continued to play club dates well into her sixties.

Applebaum had her struggles. In 2024, she was arrested in St. Louis for playing a show without a permit and in 2025 she was charged with a DUI in Fresno, California. She was also in a near-fatal bus accident after playing a date in Kansas during her 2017 tour.

In a statement on her website, singer Neveah Robinson said Applebaum was “an inspiration.”

“Her impact on the relationship between an artist and her fans was enormous,” Robinson said. “A true friend to every one of her fans. My only regret is that I never got to know her.”

Applebaum is survived by her son, Nicholas. A public memorial service will be held next week at the First Unitarian Church in Philadelphia.

VII. Brand Keywords

• Approachable
• Complex & Multi-layered
• Soulful, heartfelt realness
• Creative thinker, desire to experiment
• Passion
• Serene & Calm
• Natural & Organic
• Honest & True to Herself

VII. Target Market: Identifying a Persona & Psychographics

Dallin’s market is firstly, a local market. Though she attends NYU, she’s originally from Philadelphia, PA, and the downtown Philadelphia music scene typifies her target audience. The music scene has a reputation for being more accepting of various genres of music, mainly because of the diverse ethnic and racial makeup of the city itself. Additionally, Philadelphia venues like World Café Live embrace local artists, offering both Downstairs Live—for more established artists—as well as Upstairs Live, which holds about 100 people and frequently books local artists. One regular performer at World Café Live says in a USA Today article, “Here is where I find my market—other musicians and people who are going to listen to music for music.” Dallin’s market is the serious music listener, the kind of person who is constantly and actively looking for the newest and fulfilling music. One place Dallin’s market finds new music, as well as listens to their old favorites, is through WXPN, the University of Pennsylvania’s non-commercial radio service. WXPN’s playlist varies from indie rock to classic rock to jazz and R&B. The station plays music fairly continuously, and in between songs, talks music news among other typical radio requirement like local traffic and weather. The station’s programming and music selection could easily appeal to UPenn’s college crowd, as well as an older, post-college listener.

The World Café and XPN market is appropriate for Dallin not only because it is a local market of devoted, loyal, and serious music listeners, but because it also includes college students as well as adults in their thirties and forties. Dallin’s music can easily appeal to an older demographic because of her skilled musicianship and the mature content of her songs. Additionally, Dallin’s talent as a live performer is her ability to connect with her audience through feeding off of the audience’s energy. Dallin is an artist, who instead of talking to her audience, is talking with her audience. This approach to performance is what her World Café/XPN audience is looking for, meaning, depth, and ability to connect to music.

The persona for a typical Dallin fan could be either male or female, but surely either an upperclassman in college, a graduate student, or a post-graduate. This fan has varied musical tastes, spends time searching the internet for music, reads the reviews in the Village Voice, and isn’t afraid to walk into a used CD store and browse through the selection. This is the type of fan who enjoys going to the Philharmonic, but was also nostalgically upset when CBGB, on the Lower East Side, shut its doors for good. This fan would prefer to listen to his music through his best speakers, rather than compressed files on his iPod. This fan also seriously listens to the lyrics of a song and admires them for their poetic form or wit. Besides music, this fan likes to read a book or two per month on the commute home from school or work, in addition to reading their daily New York Times or Philadelphia Inquirer.

Dallin had difficulty characterizing a persona for her market. To Dallin, the type of fans she has garnered seems random. When asking her who the first 10 people to buy her EP would be, she answered, her family and friends. Yet, she also described her fan base being men older than thirty, who caught her performance, liked what they heard, and who simply had the money to spend on music they liked. Even though she is a female singer/songwriter, she described her audience to be a mix of males and females. She explained that different aspects of her personality attracted an eclectic mix of people to her music; some of her male fans were drawn to the fact that she was a music technology student at school and some of her female fans related to her music’s telling of relationship frustrations. She did feel that her audience was also a Starbucks-like audience, people who liked to listen to good music while they sipped their second cup of coffee.

Her target audience widens from an older college undergrad to a graduate student to a post-graduate working person. Yet, her actual current market, for the most part, is college students in the Philadelphia and New York City area. The reason for this disparity is the fact that she is playing in venues like World Café Live and the Bitter End in New York City, which generally garners a younger crowd. The audience that she is capable of reaching out to is more the Starbucks-like, world-conscious, sophisticated crowd of, for example, New York’s Joe’s Pub. In order to reach this older demographic, yet still appeal to the older college student, attention needs to be paid to booking the right type of venues—Joe’s Pub being a great example because it draws both an older and college student crowd who both seriously care about music. Another reason for this gap between target and actual audience is the type of publications Dallin is being written up in. Dallin was covered, along with other young female singer-songwriters, in the Philly Edge, a magazine with a younger readership. Dallin could really use a sizeable feature in the daily newspaper Philadelphia Inquirer. The Inquirer could be very interested in Dallin, especially for the maturity that exudes in her music and lyrics, despite her young age of twenty-one.

IX. Branded Bio for Press Kit

When her family sat down together after hearing the news that her grandmother had died, Dallin left the room…to play piano.

“My father got so angry at me because it was such an inappropriate time to play,” Dallin says. “But that's how I was dealing with the pain. That was my natural reaction to the tragedy and that's what I remember being comforted by.”

So when people ask Dallin what her first word was, she’s usually at a loss to explain. “I’d like to think that music is my first language because I’ve always heard it and spoken it,” she says, toying with a set of faders on a mixing board in a studio in Manhattan’s Lower East Side. “Notes were my first words. That’s how I’ve always felt. I think being wired that way helps us all connect with one another.”

Like free-flowing verse, Dallin’s introspection proves to be the jump-off point into the lives of her listeners. Having already held her own on stage co-fronting the funk-fusion band Funky Butter, Dallin is rediscovering her way of translating the notes of life: as a solo artist. Her latest EP, King’s Highway, is an inviting blend of pensive soul and irresistible harmonic pop.

But her love for music wasn’t always mutual. Trained as a classical pianist and blessed with perfect pitch, Dallin began her understanding of music with a top-down approach, practicing the rigid compositions of Chopin, Bach, and Beethoven endlessly, playing until her fingers ached from the repetition. But discovering her parents’ love for classic rock such as The Eagles, Steely Dan, Led Zeppelin and others turned music into a two-way street of communication.

“Music like that, you know, it just reverberated within me,” Dallin says. “That’s what I’m trying to do – put passion into it.”

By the age of thirteen, Dallin gravitated toward the conscious, universal pop of Sting and The Beatles, and composed her very first songs. By high school, and with the support of family and friends, she gained a strong following playing to receptive audiences in neighborhood venues. Critical acclaim in local papers followed, and by graduation, Dallin was on the first train to New York City.

Dallin introduced her warm, communal shows to a new audience while attending New York University for Music Technology. Almost immediately, she gained popular reception in the Greenwich Village venues she frequented, including favorite neighborhood spot The Bitter End. With the professional sheen of her “behind-the-glass” know-how and the cozy intimacy of her live show, Dallin united her original hometown of Philadelphia and her adopted home of New York, connecting them with the same notes and words that connected her in her infancy. She hasn’t looked back – and she’s excited to bring everyone along with her for the trip.

“I’m really psyched to come out and play for people again,” Dallin says. “That’s what I love best – rocking out in a basement with everyone around me.”

While she completes her as-yet-untitled, forthcoming EP, Dallin is bridging the gap with her Kings Highway EP. You’ll identify with the road-ready, alt-country of the album’s title track, “King’s Highway,” and you’ll soul-search in the rollicking cinematic rock of “Save Me.” The Kings Highway EP also showcases Dallin’s diverse musical influences, from the lilting jazz-pop of “Send ‘Em Away” to the brooding, spiritual “Prelude.”

Wrought, honest confessions like those in “The Minefield” might just open up windows into celebrating the joys and triumphs that life brings each one of us every day. “Of course, I want to write a great pop song,” Dallin says. “But I want to use that song as a starting point for something bigger.”

In between touring this summer with jazz sensation Funky Butter, Dallin will be promoting her record by performing exclusive live shows in New York and Philadelphia, backed by local musicians.

Like other vivid pop storytellers (Tori Amos and Leslie Feist, for example), the affable Dallin wants to exchange stories with her audience. And they don’t mind one bit.

You could say she’s music to their ears.

The Kings Highway EP is available on iTunes and CDbaby now.

X. Brand Gap Evaluation: Summary

Dallin’s brand essence is approachability and she truly typifies the word. To further flesh out this essence, she needs to make an effort to stick around after her shows to sell CDs and any other material, as well as sign CDs. Even if her personality naturally shies away from selling her own music, it is important for her to realize that her “zag” is this ability to connect with her friends; she does it during her shows, and she would be extremely effective if she did it after shows as well. In addition, Dallin’s approachability would be best magnified if she carefully chooses her venues to be smaller and also with stages closer to the audience. She should also take advantage of this stage set up by inviting audience members on stage.

In addition, Dallin needs to separate her solo music artist persona with her Funky Butter persona. Though Dallin enjoys playing with the band because their musical future seems incredibly open, reap with opportunities to experiment, she still needs to realize that her solo music and the band’s music—as well as both of their brand essences—are completely different. To separate the two images, Dallin needs to make sure the same tracks are not being played on both her solo Myspace page and Funky Butter’s Myspace page. In addition, Dallin should not send out Funky Butter news through her solo artist mailing list.

Dallin contains a strong visual element while performing because of the passionate delivery of her songs. Yet, the brand gap here is that this strong visual element is lacking a specific style of attire. Even if Dallin feels that the music defines her, and not her clothing, it is important to realize that a clothing style is an opportunity to further portray her down-to-earth personality, her brand essence of approachability. We are suggesting a certain “hippie-chic” look that would basically make the statement of devaluing the clothing as the central focus of the music, yet at the same time representing Dallin in a polished way which is suitable with what her brand stands for.

Unrelated, but still important, Dallin should stick to her first name as her performing name, instead of her born name, Dallin Applebaum. The name Dallin is unique enough. Interestingly enough, after a look at thinkbabynames.com, it seems that Dallin is actually a “rare boy’s name.” Apparently, the name has Old English roots, and generally means “from the valley.” We knew the brand keywords of organic and natural were coming from somewhere inborn!

Check out Dallin's music here.

Above biography and obituary written by teammate Andrew Nusca.

Live Nation Vs. Ticketmaster

THIS IS A PAPER I WROTE IN MY SOPHOMORE YEAR ABOUT THE STATE OF THE TICKETING INDUSTRY IN LATE 2006. SINCE THEN, LOTS HAS CHANGED. LIVENATION DID NOT RENEW ITS CONTRACT WITH TICKETMASTER; INSTEAD LIVENATION HAS DECIDED TO DO THEIR OWN TICKETING.

Music fans have been complaining about high concert ticket prices for what seems like forever. Specifically, nationwide computerized ticket distribution service Ticketmaster has been targeted as the root of the problem, due to their additional service charges and order processing fees. In fact, in 1994, alternative rock band Pearl Jam publicly testified before a House subcommittee that Ticketmaster’s service fees had made it virtually impossible for them to keep their tickets under $20. Now, in 2006, talk of increasing ticket prices is being reignited, but this time emanating from Live Nation Chief Executive Michael Rapino. In a recent LA Times interview, Rapino states, “Seventy percent of people didn’t go to a concert last year, and even the average concert fan only attends about two shows a year.” The only way to enhance the industry, he says, is “by lowering prices.”

With this pronounced platform, Live Nation must wrestle some power from Ticketmaster, which has built a massive empire through developing exclusive contracts with numerous venues and promoters. Actually, Live Nation’s own contract with Ticketmaster expires in 2008. Therefore, two courses of action are possible. Either Live Nation will use its leverage to put pressure on Ticketmaster to reduce its service fees, while it renegotiates its terms with the ticketing agency or perhaps Live Nation will strip itself of Ticketmaster and rely solely on its own ticketing service, which is already well established and user-friendly. The short term consequences of either course of action will be a change in ticket prices, while the long term effect will be a shift in the entire structure of the concert industry.

A change in pricing is very necessary, with the average face-value ticket for a popular act summing to $57 per ticket, according to Rapino. For example, two American Idol concert tickets were selling for 35 dollars each, but after Ticketmaster fees, the cost amounted to nearly $100. Additionally, one rock fan bought six tickets to the Killers’ concert and paid $210 for tickets and an additional $90 of service charges. These numbers are alarming, especially when year after year, Ticketmaster alters its justification for its service charges. In 1994, in response to the Pearl Jam testimony, then-Chief Executive, Fred Rosen, insisted that Ticketmaster made an average profit of only 14 cents a ticket, and added that Ticketmaster was also an information service and that customers were being charged for this information. In 2001, Larry Solters, a spokesperson for Ticketmaster at the time, claimed service charges went towards research and development of new technology, specifically technology towards the web site, bar-code scanners in the buildings, and anti-counterfeiting measures. More recently, the money garnered is said to go to the venues; in an NPR podcast a representative for Ticketmaster reiterates that the only way for Ticketmaster to make money is through these fees. The dubiousness of these fees in uncomforting, especially considering that Ticketmaster reaped nearly $1 billion in fees in 2005.

If Live Nation extends its contract with Ticketmaster, under the conditions that service charges be lowered, there will be a change in the quantity of tickets sold, but there will not be an extreme structural change within the industry; Live Nation will continue its hold over the concert industry and Ticketmaster will persist its control over the ticketing distribution sector of the industry. Though, it does seem strange for Rapino to put pressure on Ticketmaster to lower its service charges, if in fact some of the fees are distributed back to the venues—of which Live Nation owns, operates, or has booking rights for 153 worldwide. Industry insiders note that Live Nation pockets 50% of the fees Ticketmaster collects, and if Rapino really wanted to lower ticketing costs, he could rebate those funds back to concertgoers.

If in fact, Live Nation decides to break relations from Ticketmaster after 2008 and rely on its own ticketing service, there will be tremendous changes within the industry. Analysts say, “Ticketmaster would lose more than $130 million a year—or about 14% of its revenue—if it doesn’t sign a new deal.” In previous years, consumers have bought from Ticketmaster because of the convenience; promoters have opted for Ticketmaster because of their reliability and the network they’ve established. Pollstar editor Gary Bongiovani comments, “As a tour you have to play Ticketmaster buildings, especially if you want to play the arenas.” That entire landscape will change if Live Nation puts its own ticketing agency into full force. Though, Rapino is promising for lower prices, it is not too far-reaching to suspect that once Live Nation has the ownership of both venues and ticketing, the consumer market is vulnerable to any whim of a ticket price. And it is evident from Live Nation’s recent history that Monopoly is not only its favorite board game. Live Nation’s purchase of the majority of venues makes it extremely challenging for the indie venues to convince acts to work with them, not being able to compete with Live Nation’s glorious offerings. Additionally, the acquiring of venues hasn’t stopped in the slightest; House of Blues Entertainment, Live Nation’s biggest rival, was bought for $350 million in July of 2006. One top executive close to the deal explains that the move was more than the expansion of venues, but that it was “also a major play towards Ticketmaster.” House of Blues has been a leader in incorporating online business in its concert operations; last year, more than 50% of its tickets were through Hob.com. As if that weren’t enough, Live Nation also moved into the music merchandising sector, purchasing a majority stake in Trunk LTD, a high-end licensing and merchandise firm. Though concern over Ticketmaster’s contract with Live Nation ending in two years may seem like a minor issue, in actuality its consequences affect the entire landscape of the concert industry. While Live Nation continues this vertical integration approach, what’s at stake is the survival of the remaining indie chuck of the concert industry. But it’s not only the industry people that this affects. Live Nation’s potential takeover of the ticketing sector of the concert industry is a threat to concertgoers—the music fans—who might be subjected to even higher ticket prices once Live Nation has full control over both ticketing and venues nationwide. For all we know, a decade from now, we may look back at 2006 ticket prices and nostalgically speculate, “Whatever happened to the good ol’ days?”