Thought I’d open a general thread on this, having read the report below about how the UK live music business and related tourism has grown dramatically in recent years, which is certainly a good thing. We will happily travel overseas for a show.
If you like physical media and want to get depressed, google the RIAA website, which will put you off investing in a CD manufacturing plant.
I’ve only really been interested in buying from companies that are financially sound. In the UK it’s easy to check. It’s especially important when you are relying upon software updates and support. For example, people over here were raving about Audionet products and then they went bust with no notice.
I also take the simplistic view that if a company is successful it’s because consumers like their products and that is a good recommendation to me rather than from some weekend reviewer. When something is advertised as “rare” and “difficult to find” I assume it means it wasn’t very good and not many people bought it.
And then there are the Tidal and MQA financial time bombs ticking away …
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This is why one of the best streaming unit manufacturers, Auralic, is run/owned by a guy in his early 30’s who set up his business on graduating.
Linn was rescued from near bankruptcy because Gilad, the owner’s son and a business and engineering graduate, told his father to stop making CD players and conventional boxes and make streaming and Class D amplifiers instead. That was well over 10 years ago and has been a big success.
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I think that the growth of the UK live music scene and its impact on tourism is definitely a positive development through the years.
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I think it’s one of the overall bonuses that came from the Covid lockdowns. Tragic as that whole period was and I’m not dismissing that in any way, the hardship that musicians faced was worse than most, live shows are really their bread and butter these days. Plus that and the public wanting to let loose led to some of the highest demand for live performances once things got back to normal.
Music is far more than entertainment, it’s really healing for a lot of people and gets you connected with your emotional state.
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Personally, I love attending shows and even traveling abroad for them. When it comes to investing in physical media, I understand the hesitation, especially with the rise of digital formats. It’s crucial to research and support financially stable companies, ensuring reliable software updates and support. I also rely on consumer preferences rather than just weekend reviewers’ opinions. If a company’s products are successful, it’s a good indication of their quality. As for “rare” and “difficult to find” items, I tend to think they didn’t resonate with a wider audience. Oh, and let’s not forget those financial time bombs like Tidal and MQA. It’s essential to stay informed and make wise choices. Also, if you’re interested in making some extra cash, you should check out the How to Make 10k Fast guide. It offers helpful tips and strategies to boost your income.
I briefly had a step-brother who was head of LiveNation Asia, which includes Ticketmaster. I remember having dinner with him in LA and he was basically explaining how they rip off concert-goers all down the line. My elder son wanted to stab him, in the nicest possible way.
Everyone knows they are crooks, they control over half of the live music market. The US gov’t haven’t got the guts to laugh an Anti-Trust case against them (for example they have exclusivity agreements with lots of large venues that exclude any competition), and last week when they were being attacked in Congress for the fiasco over the Taylor Swift ticketing, they blamed it on a cyber attack. The sooner they are broken up the better.
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Absolutely agree, the whole flipper market needs to have legislation applied, at an EU / US level (I include UK in the EU), it’s complete daylight robbery and does make it impossible for younger generations to get to their favorite shows.
As a direct result of that kind of practice, I’ve stopped going to shows in around 2018, I just could never buy a ticket when they went live on sale, the site would always crash and when you did get on 2 minutes later, they were all sold out. I just took a defeatest attitude and thought I’m not even going to bother.
In my old age anyway, I still adore live music, but I’m only really interested in quite small intimate shows which are often even harder to find tickets to.
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On Saturday night Bold Tendencies in Peckham cost £17 per ticket. Top price for the ballet at Covent Garden is about £150, which is loose change compared to what people seem to pay for some shows. I just have no idea how people can afford these big shows. I’ve stopped going, the last one I went to was probably Radiohead, who do their own ticketing. Some great gigs, like Church of Sound, can be had for £5.
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Yeah, most of the artists I’m after are around £150 for an official ticket, you’re talking 350 once they’re in the hands of the flippers.
I have no idea how some people get tickets, really don’t.
Radiohead are sincerely great guys, they had a minidisc stolen which had content that could have done an incredible box set, or a few double albums, so what did they do? Barter with these guys, or go through some official process to try to get it back? No, they just released the entire content for free on the web.
Now I realise Radiohead are big enough to be able to handle something like that in that way, but they continue to show that they really care for their fans and would rather charge less, or release stuff for free than start charging hundreds just because they made it big.
I respect that.
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I think they also wanted to prove a point, it can be done, Glastonbury manage to do it with 300,000 tickets on a public ballot. The only complaint is they do so few gigs.
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They seem to have found an investor (you can read this with google translate or so):