Ticket Master / Live Nation Merger

This has to be bad news. Two terrible companies become one super terrible company. Our government at work. 🙄

This is the kind of information that I find very valuable. There will be much to be considered the next time Lucinda hits the road. There is no way to avoid TM/LN in many cities -in other cities there are regional/local options. Because of the assumption that this merger will cause price increases I can already see where this is going to put more pressure on the artist and managers to make adjustments so that going to a show is still a reasonable proposition to the fans. There are always things that are taken into consideration when budgeting a tour but now things are only going be much more challenging:
1) I think it will put much more onus on the artist to find ways to keep prices down, and
2) Also looking for new ways to get tickets into the hands of fans -so they don’t have to pay 25-50% in fees or try and hustle tickets on the street the day of the show because the reality of that is obviously only a small percentage of fans will do that.
3) It certainly may affect the places you play, because there are too many cities where all of the venues will be LN/TM venues, so there is no way to completely get around them.
4) It will increase the challenge to still be able to put on the show you want to put on with the best band and sound etc. Obviously to keep ticket prices down you have to keep overhead down. Someone like Lucinda would never ever compromise having a great band and great sound and never will. So will something else have to be sacrificed? I hope not. I do know that our budgets were tight this past year in trying to keep prices down. Before last years tour we looked at adding a lighting person and small lights setup but it was just too expensive so we didn’t. In the end a small sacrifice but an example of things that have to be considered.
I can say that we will do everything we can to make going to a Lucinda show an affordable and first rate show. We will find a way.
I do still want to start a fan club or some function that allows for pre-sale tickets to get into the hands of the core fans first. That is something we will do on the next tour.
As always I welcome ideas or things that you see other artists doing that we can do to make sure the experience of going to a show is still a great one. Fortunately we have some time, as Lucinda won’t be going out until the end of the year at the earliest so bring them on.

@tonyg wrote:

Good idea on fan club tickets TO. Avoiding TM/LN will be hard to do.

Agreed. Also Tom, I wanted to remind you of my idea, if logistically possible, about arranging for fan club members to enter the venue ahead of other ticket holders for GA shows…

Thanks for your & Lu’s sensitivity to ticket prices & fees, Tom. As I am sure you are aware, there are some of us (myself definitely included here) that would buy tickets to see Lu regardless of the fees – we would just cut back on other shows, etc. in our entertainment budgets. In spite of that, any pressure you & Lu (and other touring artists for that matter) can put on TM/LN venues regarding fees is much, MUCH appreciated, as are all your efforts to keep ticket prices overall as affordable as possible. Thank you.

Tom

More than tripling of fees percentage in 11 years? Outrageous! 👿 👿 👿

Tom

@Lafayette wrote:

Bastards.

There, I said it.

And I second it! 👿 😡

Tom