The live-music business is booming, and professional ticket scalpers are raking in a lot of money on the secondary markets. Now bands and their managers are looking to squeeze extra cash out of the live-music revenue stream by getting a piece of online ticket scalpers’ profits.
Radiohead, The Verve and more than 400 other bands have joined the Resale Rights Society, a new British industry group that wants to levy fees against websites that facilitate so-called secondary sales of tickets. The money would be used to compensate artists, managers, booking agents and promoters.
Read on (via WIRED) …
Radiohead, The Verve, Other Bands Seek Piece of Ticket Scalpers’ Action
As reported at the Listening Post at Wired.com, in the latest edition of the Music Ally newsletter (subscription required), Will Page, chief economist at the MCPS-PRS Alliance (a UK performing rights society), analyzed the two primary trends in the music industry right now - the decline in music sales and the simultaneous increasing revenues from live music. By combining these two trends with the right data, he estimated that live music revenue will soon eclipse recorded music revenue, assuming current trends continue.
He concludes that “if these current trends were to continue,” live music will become a larger industry than recorded music in Great Britain “within the next three years.”
The article references recent moves by Prince (who gave away music with a newspaper), Madonna (who signed with Live Nation), and record labels that are asking for so-called “360 degree” deals, which give them an interest in their artists’ touring revenues, merchandise, and other revenue that has traditionally gone directly to the artist.
Live Music Revenues Could Exceed Music Sales | Listening Post from Wired.com
