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Looking forward to an even "more live" year in 2011. Stay safe, support the music. be blessed
Friday, December 31, 2010
Thursday, December 30, 2010
Recession hits concerts: 2010 ticket sales down
The box-office take for the 50 biggest grossing tours in the world fell 12% to $2.93 billion, from $3.34 billion in 2009, according to Pollstar, a trade magazine considered the leading monitor of ticket sales.
In North America, the drop was even more pronounced, with a 15% decline to $1.69 billion.
Underscoring how the industry leans on aging but tried-and-true acts, Bon Jovi's 53-city tour was the biggest in the world this year, grossing $201.1 million.
By comparison, a 31-city tour by U2 topped the list for 2009, with a haul of $311 million.
Even before this year, signs of trouble had been brewing. Though industry-wide total grosses had increased in eight of the previous nine years, that growth had largely been driven by rising ticket prices, even as the number of tickets sold held roughly even.
That led many in the industry to warn that if fans' tolerance for rising prices were to wane, the gravy train could grind to a halt.
That appeared to be part of the equation in 2010, even as promoters scrambled to offer last-minute discounts, slashing prices for some underperforming shows to $10 or $20 a ticket.
Among the acts whose tickets were discounted were the Jonas Brothers, Rihanna, Santana with Steve Winwood, Creed, Maroon 5 and The "American Idol" live tour.
World-wide, average ticket prices increased 3.9% to $76.69, up from $73.83 in 2009.
In North America, the average price declined $1.55, or 2%, as concert promotion giant Live Nation Entertainment Inc. engaged in widespread last-minute discounting.
Despite those efforts, the number of tickets sold declined both world-wide and in North America—and even more steeply than the number of shows did, suggesting weak interest among fans.
Getty Images
![[SB10001424052970203525404576050133085277172]](http://s.wsj.net/public/resources/images/OB-LO193_1229dr_D_20101229164555.jpg)
Bon Jovi performs on stage at Rod Laver Arena on Dec. 10.
Throughout the world, concert-goers bought 38.3 million tickets this year, down 15% from 2009's 45.3 million. The 26.2 million tickets sold in North America represented a 12% drop from the 2009 level of 29.9 million. The ongoing slump in recorded music sales has been a major hurdle to getting top acts to accept less money for concerts, as concerts have become an important financial cushion.
Some in the concert industry had argued that because a live concert is a unique experience that can't be duplicated digitally and downloaded, their business would be immune to the problems that have pushed down recorded music.
U.S. album sales are down 13% this year compared with 2009, to 319 million, according to Nielsen SoundScan. Sales of CDs, which are often more profitable for record labels than cheaper digital albums, are off 20% so far this year. Sales of individual digital songs have ticked up a mere 1% compared with 2009, to just over 1.1 billion.
Getty Images
Those shifts have hit many acts in the pocket book, and older acts with established fan bases turned increasingly in recent years to concert tours, with regularly rising prices, to steady their finances.
Irving Azoff, Live Nation's executive chairman and the manager of numerous major acts, last year told The Wall Street Journal that recorded music represented as little as 6% of some clients' income—down from 50% a decade ago.
Last month, in a conference call with stock analysts Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino vowed to reduce prices. "We know that if you lower the price, they'll come," he said. "If you want to get a casual concert buyer to come to a show that he's debating, we know in the amphitheaters that if you price it at $20 all-in they will come."
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Live Forever from Pittsburgh: Bob's Swan Song
Bob Marley’s last concert was held in Pittsburgh, Pa., in 1980; he died of cancer the following year at the age of 36. In February, Universal Music Enterprises/Tuff Gong International is releasing a 2-CD set of the performance titled ““Bob Marley & The Wailers—Live Forever: The Stanley Theatre, Pittsburgh, PA, September 23, 1980.”
Marley historian Roger Steffens, author of “The Reggae Scrapbook,” says the Pittsburgh concert had an emotional ending. At the close of the second set of encores, Marley went to the edge of the stage and, in an unusual move for him, shook hands with people in the crowd. After the end of the performance, the reggae great called the band to his room and informed them that he could not continue with the tour.
“Thankfully, the power of the moment is captured fully in this historic recording, and it is only the third official live recording of Bob’s to be offered to the public, a summation of a career that covered all the different elements of Jamaican popular music,” says Steffens
Saturday, December 11, 2010
December is Live!: From the Deck to the "Bones"
Live music is again flourishing in Kingston - with several venues updating monthly and even weekly live rosters - among them the Deck, which recently hosted a great live variety show, and the new red Bones the Blues Cafe, which has picked up in its new location, where it left off in supporting live acts at its old. There's also Pulse,Susie's and the Village Cafe and other set to come on stream.
some photo highlights from recent shows
Sunday, December 5, 2010
Battle Of The Bands Is Back
When the Jamaican leg of Global Battle of the Bands competition kicks off at the Redbones Blues Café next week, it will be much different from its first staging in 2005.
Back then, it was a big competition with 16 bands participating in the event that was held at Backyaad Entertainment Complex in St Andrew. Live Wyaa was the winner of the contest and they went on to make their mark in the world finals in London.
Fast track to this year, the competition will be held at Redbones Blues Café, 1 Argyle Road, New Kingston, on December 11, starting at midday.
National Director of the competition, Seretse Small said a lot has changed over the years.
"Everything is different," he told The Sunday Gleaner.
"We had no cash sponsorship in 2005. This year, we have cash from Red Bull and Scotiabank. In 2005, it was bigger at Backyaad. This year, we scaled it down, it will be smaller and more intimate."
There will also be a change in the judging process. In the last staging, there were seven judges who were mostly associated with dancehall and reggae music.
international judges
This time around, there will be international judges like John Baker and Ray Hitchins, as well as local judges like Mikey Bennett and Ibo Cooper.
"In that judging, there will be more of a balance and greater credibility in terms of the international market," said Small, who is also the CEO for Griot Music Limited.
Media coordinator for the competition, Michael Edwards, said there have also been changes in the live-music scene in Jamaica.
"The sound has kinda advanced with technology. The capability, in terms of reproducing music has advanced since 2005," he said.
While the bands will be playing music, they will not be allowed to do any cover versions of songs. Instead, they will be required to enter the competition with original music.
"No covers, everything has to be original. What we want to get away from is the notion of the band backing an artiste. We want to show the band being the artiste," Edwards told The Sunday Gleaner.
On the day of the competition, each band will be given two separate stints of no more than 10 minutes to showcase their material.
And, there will be no limitations on the genres of music that they will be allowed to do.
"The more the merrier," Edwards said.
Meanwhile, Small said there is no set number of bands yet, as some people are still registering. So far, he said Irie Connections is the only band that has formally registered. However, other bands like Crimson Heart Replica, Dubtonic Kru and Mojahrock have shown interest.
They will be competing for a trip to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, for the world finals on February 26. They will also be given 20 hours of studio time at Red Bull studio, which is located on the Tuff Gong Recording Studio premises.
In addition, the winner will get a video package courtesy of the Creative Production and Training Centre and three months of media and public relations services from Nanook Enterprises.
When the competition is held, Edwards said he is expecting to see work of a high standard.
"I think the quality will be very good and I am looking forward to the expositions that the bands will perform. Overall, I am optimistic and I think we will have a good competition," he said.
And, with the energy that is expected to build around the competition, Small said other bands are going to wish they had entered.
While the winner will be hard to choose, Small said that the band will do well on the world stage, although it will require some creativity on their part.
"It will be a little challenging going up against a lot of rock and techno bands. Our groups, because we are in Jamaica, may not be as innovative in some ways as the foreign bands," he said.
But because reggae is loved worldwide, he said Jamaica is always a crowd favourite and people will really want to see the winning band because of Jamaica's five-year absence.
Therefore, in order to be more competitive, he is encouraging locals bands to experiment more with their music.
"That's what I'm promoting here, for our bands to be more internationally minded. To be able to keep our identity and to broaden it," Small said.
Back then, it was a big competition with 16 bands participating in the event that was held at Backyaad Entertainment Complex in St Andrew. Live Wyaa was the winner of the contest and they went on to make their mark in the world finals in London.
Fast track to this year, the competition will be held at Redbones Blues Café, 1 Argyle Road, New Kingston, on December 11, starting at midday.
National Director of the competition, Seretse Small said a lot has changed over the years.
"Everything is different," he told The Sunday Gleaner.
"We had no cash sponsorship in 2005. This year, we have cash from Red Bull and Scotiabank. In 2005, it was bigger at Backyaad. This year, we scaled it down, it will be smaller and more intimate."
There will also be a change in the judging process. In the last staging, there were seven judges who were mostly associated with dancehall and reggae music.
international judges
This time around, there will be international judges like John Baker and Ray Hitchins, as well as local judges like Mikey Bennett and Ibo Cooper.
"In that judging, there will be more of a balance and greater credibility in terms of the international market," said Small, who is also the CEO for Griot Music Limited.
Media coordinator for the competition, Michael Edwards, said there have also been changes in the live-music scene in Jamaica.
"The sound has kinda advanced with technology. The capability, in terms of reproducing music has advanced since 2005," he said.
While the bands will be playing music, they will not be allowed to do any cover versions of songs. Instead, they will be required to enter the competition with original music.
"No covers, everything has to be original. What we want to get away from is the notion of the band backing an artiste. We want to show the band being the artiste," Edwards told The Sunday Gleaner.
On the day of the competition, each band will be given two separate stints of no more than 10 minutes to showcase their material.
And, there will be no limitations on the genres of music that they will be allowed to do.
"The more the merrier," Edwards said.
Meanwhile, Small said there is no set number of bands yet, as some people are still registering. So far, he said Irie Connections is the only band that has formally registered. However, other bands like Crimson Heart Replica, Dubtonic Kru and Mojahrock have shown interest.
They will be competing for a trip to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, for the world finals on February 26. They will also be given 20 hours of studio time at Red Bull studio, which is located on the Tuff Gong Recording Studio premises.
In addition, the winner will get a video package courtesy of the Creative Production and Training Centre and three months of media and public relations services from Nanook Enterprises.
When the competition is held, Edwards said he is expecting to see work of a high standard.
"I think the quality will be very good and I am looking forward to the expositions that the bands will perform. Overall, I am optimistic and I think we will have a good competition," he said.
And, with the energy that is expected to build around the competition, Small said other bands are going to wish they had entered.
While the winner will be hard to choose, Small said that the band will do well on the world stage, although it will require some creativity on their part.
"It will be a little challenging going up against a lot of rock and techno bands. Our groups, because we are in Jamaica, may not be as innovative in some ways as the foreign bands," he said.
But because reggae is loved worldwide, he said Jamaica is always a crowd favourite and people will really want to see the winning band because of Jamaica's five-year absence.
Therefore, in order to be more competitive, he is encouraging locals bands to experiment more with their music.
"That's what I'm promoting here, for our bands to be more internationally minded. To be able to keep our identity and to broaden it," Small said.
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