Well good news, I suppose, for anyone working in the recorded music industry sick to death of watching everyone in the live sector doing so well. But bad news for music fans me thinks.
Despite an impressive line up and a credible heritage, organisers of the Lollapalooza Festival have called off this year's 31 date US tour because of poor ticket sales. The festival's promoters say they had to take this decision with just three weeks to go because, by current sales figures, they stood to loose millions on the venture.
Confirming the cancellation Lollapalooza co-founder, Jane's Addiction's Perry Farrell, told reporters yesterday: "My heart aches along with the bands and all of our employees, whose hard work developed one of the most exciting and important tours that this nation was to see. My heart is broken."
Fellow co-founder, Marc Geiger of the William Morris Agency, added: "On the average, the losses, had ticket sales not dramatically picked up - which they showed no indication of doing - the people involved faced losses in the mid-to-high six figures on a per-show basis. Lollapalooza is not alone in this. Everyone from The Dead to Dave Matthews to Norah Jones is suffering. There's not one explanation for this. It might be that ticket prices are too high, which doesn't account for Lollapalooza, because our tickets were priced between $15 and $25. Maybe it's the sundry add-ons that up the cost? Maybe gas prices are too high? Just like the record industry is suffering, the concert business is not exempt."
Those closing comments could well have an impact across the live sector who have been enjoying a buoyant period of late while the recorded music industry continued to struggle. It may well be that the high ticket prices and schedule saturation that caused a decline in the American live industry a few years back is starting to have an effect again - whether that is the case, and whether that in turn impacts on the still buoyant live and festivals sector over here, remains to be seen.