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Selling Around the Music - The Police
Holy Shit! Pollstar just announced that the Police have crossed over $100 million in revenues from the first portion of their global tour. Based on the current number of shows, the band is AVERAGING $3.4 million per performance and they haven't even finished their tour! It is truly unbelievable considering that this is a band that hasn't been together for many many years. A few other data points of total concert revenues include the Rolling Stones at $162 million and U2 at $138.9M in 2005.
This is an extreme example of where "selling around the music" can yield incredible results for the band. I have said many times that most bands make money touring and selling merchandise as opposed to sales of CDs and downloads. In fact according to Billboard and Pollstar, the global concert ticket and merchandising market is approximately $25 billion in size - moreover, I don't believe that these numbers include local and regional touring of independent bands or those singed to indie labels. THIS IS A HUGE MARKET. In the new music world, I believe that it is imperative that ANY company that operates in this industry MUST include revenue streams from areas beyond just selling music. While I believe that artists SHOULD get compensated for music, many artists simply give away their music to accelerate ticket and merch sales - a wise strategy considering this is where bands make money to pay the bills.
On a personal note, I had the chance to see the Police play in Oakland a few months ago with a few friends of mine. I will tell you without any hesitation that the ticket price was well worth it. These guys were amazing - I felt like I was taking a walk down memory lane as the songs (Invisible Sun, Roxanne, Spirits in the Material World, and King of Pain to name a few) painted vivid recollections of moments from days past - parties, road trips, hanging with my knucklehead friends, being miserable, being elated... it was crazy. There's no drug on the planet that could replicate and stimulate memories like music can.
On a side note, there hasn't been a band in more recent memory that can sell out huge arenas anymore - it's great seeing bands that I grew up with still on the road, but I hope that we'll soon see current bands build up these mass followings like the Police, the Stones, and U2... only time will tell, but I think it'll happen soon.
This is an extreme example of where "selling around the music" can yield incredible results for the band. I have said many times that most bands make money touring and selling merchandise as opposed to sales of CDs and downloads. In fact according to Billboard and Pollstar, the global concert ticket and merchandising market is approximately $25 billion in size - moreover, I don't believe that these numbers include local and regional touring of independent bands or those singed to indie labels. THIS IS A HUGE MARKET. In the new music world, I believe that it is imperative that ANY company that operates in this industry MUST include revenue streams from areas beyond just selling music. While I believe that artists SHOULD get compensated for music, many artists simply give away their music to accelerate ticket and merch sales - a wise strategy considering this is where bands make money to pay the bills.
On a personal note, I had the chance to see the Police play in Oakland a few months ago with a few friends of mine. I will tell you without any hesitation that the ticket price was well worth it. These guys were amazing - I felt like I was taking a walk down memory lane as the songs (Invisible Sun, Roxanne, Spirits in the Material World, and King of Pain to name a few) painted vivid recollections of moments from days past - parties, road trips, hanging with my knucklehead friends, being miserable, being elated... it was crazy. There's no drug on the planet that could replicate and stimulate memories like music can.
On a side note, there hasn't been a band in more recent memory that can sell out huge arenas anymore - it's great seeing bands that I grew up with still on the road, but I hope that we'll soon see current bands build up these mass followings like the Police, the Stones, and U2... only time will tell, but I think it'll happen soon.
Comments
I also think it will be a vibrant food-chain that starts in standing only 100 person capacity date-bars and scenes, moving to the 1000 seat local music halls, then to the 10,000 seat stadiums, a finally to mega-venues, with the latter to be limited to a pretty select number of artists. Having said that, I think the reduction of "transaction costs" of middlemen in the web-enabled environment will permit all of these venues to serve as worthwhile revenue sources for artists at all stages in their careers.
The final point I would like to make is that, while there has been considerable discussion by many observers of the music scene (including me) about "free downloads" or digital music "approaching free", I see this happening over an extended period of time; and musicians will, and should be, compensated for their creative work through sales of downloads, as well as physical discs and LPs.
What we are making judgments about, however, is the long-term viability of a music revenue model that assumes that the major source of revenue for an artist will continue be cash from the sale of one's music in specific one-off buy/sell product transactions. Songs will continue to be downloaded and sold by artists for cash for many years, but the question is: will downloads and physical product be enough for a broad base of artists? My answer to this question would, regretably, have to be, no.
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A lot of new music is pretty good. But I also think a lot of new music is crap or just computer cheating with little or no songwriting talent involved and artists of that ilk are in complete denial of that fact. True talent and hard work will always last. Others will come and go.
For the most part, old established acts seem to to be able to fill arenas, but most new acts can't, at least not yet, that I can see. That's why you see combined acts which is certainly nothing new. Bill Graham, the great concert promoter showed us the way.
Ticket & merchandise sales are fine, but I really hate to see the individual musical songs suffer from being de-valued just to entice the consumer to act.
I think the new technology and everything surrounding the industry is moving so fast that musicians and the industry can hardly react. They are caught flat-footed on the whole!
That speaks as to why the old establishment acts that were hugely successful in the past are able to still succeed becuase they can fall upon a huge existing and growing fan base.
Longevity has it's merits. But with high-speed technology and the "I want it all, and I want it NOW generation", it's hard for many "newbie muscicians" to remain patient and focused. It's dis-heartening and I don't blame them. In was hard enough to make it old school style! Luck & timing still come into play.
But also, there is just so many more forms of entertainment in this world vying for your time, money and amusement these days. TV used to have only 4 to 6 stations once! Now we have 100's of stations and not to mention satellite radio over traditional radio and you start to see the writing on the wall.
Take one city for instance, Las Vegas, look how that city has grown since it's inception. You could get lost up in that city for weeks on end. I know, HA! I've been there!!!
It's as if we need to have digital inputs implanted into us just to keep up!!!Kinda' creepy, the speed of everything these days and lack of interaction on a personal basis. The computer has and continues to evolve and change the entire landscape as TCC always says.
No, is also my assessment as to: Will downloaded songs (many for free) combined with hard goods sales be enough for sustainability?
One might need a second job.....yikes, a horrible thought to a die-hard musician!