July 18, 2004

BY BRIAN MCCOLLUM DETROIT FREE PRESS POP MUSIC WRITER

Haven't attended a concert this summer? Join the crowd.

2004 is shaping up as the worst year for the live music industry in more than a decade. In Detroit, ticket sales have slowed; in some places across the country, they've nearly screeched to a halt. After years of revenue growth and steady attendance, business has done a 180.

The signs are popping up like bad mushrooms across the concert landscape: canceled shows and even entire tours, including the latest Lollapalooza. Uncrowded parking lots and bathrooms at places like DTE Energy Music Theatre and Jerome Duncan Ford Theatre at Freedom Hill. Front-page panic stories in the music trade press.

It was just last year, in March 2003, that Ticketmaster celebrated the most successful day in its history, moving more than 1.1 million tickets in one 24-hour period. But this April, as summer shows went on sale across the United States, the mood abruptly turned darker. By the end of June, concert attendance nationwide was down more than 25 percent from 2003, according to Billboard and Pollstar magazines, which independently track box-office data. And that comes as the economy is ostensibly rebounding, with other entertainment fields -- like movies and baseball -- registering record numbers.

Inside a business known for its upbeat spin -- this is entertainment, after all -- many have been forced to concede that venues really are half-empty, not half-full.

If you're a typical concertgoer, you're probably already ticking off the reasons in your head. They seem obvious: The summer schedule is filled with too much of the same old stuff. There are so many other entertainment options. Ticket prices are too high, and the surcharges are outrageous.

Those are the easy explanations, and they're accurate. But those same conditions, those same complaints, have been around for years . . . and fans lapped up concert tickets. Which leaves the big question: What makes 2004 so different? Why now?

"In any business, you have adjustment periods," says Kevin Cassidy, general manager at Freedom Hill. "This just might be one of those adjustments for our business."

Those on the inside suspect that a host of factors have converged to leave fans weary. It's an environment in which experienced concertgoers feel turned off, and casual fans may feel turned away. It's more than dollars. It's the perceived value of the whole investment: the time, the dusty lawn, the lines, even the music onstage.

Not that money doesn't play its part. National data and Free Press studies of the Detroit market show that concert prices have been jumping annually, well outpacing inflation, since the mid-'90s. But while fans have griped about ticket costs for years, agents and promoters have legitimately justified the rates by pointing to strong sales -- the marketplace was clearly bearing the price. What this summer might tell us is that a threshold has at last been crossed. The audience has quit complaining and finally acted.

Matthew Raines of Birmingham is one avid music fan who's quit bothering to even browse schedules at the big venues. He's sticking with smaller club shows where he says the prices are more palatable and he's not bombarded by ad placards for nasal sprays and pizza delivery.

"It's just not worth it to me to have to pay $50 or up to see a band play for an hour and a half, with corporate guys taking all the best seats," says Raines, 27, who reluctantly skipped recent Aerosmith and Rolling Stones shows. "You go to these venues now, and the food is so expensive, the drinks, the parking. Taking a date to a concert these days, you could be paying $200 and up."

As the industry is discovering to the dismay of its accountants, Raines isn't alone. The likely result? Lower prices next year, say local and national promoters.

"In terms of the face value of tickets, absolutely," says Dave Clark, the company's senior vice president for Midwest marketing. Clear Channel, the country's biggest concert promoter, books shows at every significant Detroit-area venue, including DTE, the Palace, Joe Louis Arena and Freedom Hill. "Consumers are more conscientious, and if they're watching their concert dollar more carefully, we need to be conscientious and so do the acts."

While concert deals take on a head-spinning array of forms, the fundamental players are artists, their booking agents, promoters and venues. Ultimately, it's the artists who determine a ticket price, both through the fees they demand and the scope of their show, with ever-increasing costs for production, staging and staff.

"People who buy from scalpers and ticket brokers aren't helping the cause," says Clark. "Artists see that kind of money, and figure why should it go to somebody else."

At Palace Sports & Entertainment, which books many of its own shows at DTE and the Palace, the biggest successes have been sold-out indoor shows by comeback acts Van Halen and Prince. They're among the few acts playing multiple dates in metro Detroit this summer, and unlike previous years, there's not a single stadium show on the metro Detroit schedule.

Metro Detroit has long been considered the country's top per-capita concert market, and local sources blame high gas prices, poor June weather and Pistons mania for much of the downturn. The slide hasn't hit here the way it's spoiled the summer for midsized cities like Pittsburgh and Kansas City, and we might be looking even better if such blockbusters as Madonna, Phish and Jimmy Buffett had included Detroit on their latest itineraries.

The summer could still be resuscitated. Last week's Jewel, Eric Clapton and Michael W. Smith dates did solid business and offered a promising sign, says Palace spokesman Jeff Corey. Upcoming shows from Josh Groban, Nickelback and Ozzfest are already sold out.

A glut of tickets But to get there, the season had to get a jump-start. Earlier this month, nervous about the slowdown, the Palace and Clear Channel staged a one-day fire sale, offering $20 tickets for many of the summer's highest-profile events, including Sting and Rod Stewart. And more than ever, Detroiters are finding discounted tickets and free vouchers atgas stations and fitness centers, and even tucked inside their cable bills.

What's hurting most, say concert officials, are middle-of-the-road shows by older rock acts that roll through town summer after summer, groups such as Styx, REO Speedwagon and Lynyrd Skynyrd. Bands lacking the benefit of hot buzz may be learning that not only are their fan bases failing to grow annually, but in fact are shrinking. Even the usually cheery publicists for some of the perpetual road warriors have privately conceded that perhaps the welcome has worn out.

Says Freedom Hill's Cassidy: "There are some shows, quite frankly, that are struggling -- acts on the fringes, on their way up or their way down."

Conspicuously missing from the tour schedule are hot recording acts. Though chart-topping hip-hopper Lloyd Banks plays a club show tonight in Royal Oak and Usher will hit the Palace in September, most of the artists populating Billboard's Top 10 aren't on the road, including the Beastie Boys, Avril Lavigne and Jadakiss.

Even without those artists, summer 2004 is another season oversaturated with events. Largely because of increased winter sports action inside the country's arenas, including the Palace, concert activity has been increasingly compressed into an 18-week summer block. It's left many fans more finicky about where to commit their concert dollars.

"We're seeing a different sales pattern than what we've seen in the past -- more steady sales over time rather than huge first-day sales," says Marilyn Hauser,who heads up booking for the Palace and DTE. "Clapton, for instance, didn't start out as strong as in the past, but it sold all the way through, and we ended up having a great night."

Quality and quantity

Beyond ticket prices, beyond the iffy schedule, there lies an intangible factor that most industry folks are reluctant to discuss aloud. But some will tell you quietly.

"I think the concert experience kind of sucks now at the price," says another promoter, who asked not to be named. "The experience has been cheapened."

Developments such as corporate sponsorships and season-ticket packages have provided new and valuable revenue for arenas and amphitheaters. But for many fans, they represent not-so-pleasant change. Live music has been among the final holding grounds for the mystique of rock and pop, and now it seems to be getting pushed away in a world where agents describe their artists as "inventory" and art has been overshadowed by quarterly financial reports.

There's a flip side to high prices and $8 beers. Freebie tickets and 2-for-1 pricing schemes, set up to help fill seats, may be backfiring on the industry, watering down the perceived worth of live music and in turn swiping the magic out of it all.

In Michigan, touring acts are booked at an ever-growing slate of sites: casinos, riverboats, county fairs, weekend festivals. As the record industry has learned from Internet piracy, music can become quickly devalued when it's available for free or close to it.

Americans may have more discretionary income than ever, but they're short on discretionary time. And concerts could be getting knocked a couple of pegs down the ladder of priorities.

With premium tickets held by corporate sponsors and package buyers, many fans have dismayingly learned that it's nearly impossible to score good seats down front at places like DTE Energy Music Theatre, the classic spot many still call Pine Knob.

"Rock concerts seem to have become this elitists' deal," says veteran Detroit rock photographer Ken Settle. "This had always been a working-class thing. Suddenly you've got these VIP lounges for the well-scrubbed people. It's almost like the bands and promoters have alienated their core audience. It just seems to have a hollow ring to it now."