Could the recent boom in the live music sector have already peaked? Well, a recent report in the Wall Street Journal suggests the US live sector, at least, is struggling again.
According to the Journal, some insiders are saying 2004 was "one of the slowest summers ever" when it came to live music, with disappointing turn outs for tours featuring bankable acts like Fleetwood Mac, Simon & Garfunkel, Norah Jones, Gloria Estefan and Kiss, plus, of course, the last minute cancellation of the Lollapalooza festival. The Journal points to one Kiss gig in particular - at a 18,400 capacity arena in Atlanta - where only 4345 tickets were sold.
Of course some would argue that the recent uplift in the live sector was thanks, in the main, to a handful of classic artists - including Paul McCartney, Elton John and Billy Joel - who could demand high ticket prices, increasing promoters' profit margins. However, as a result of that trend, ticket prices across the board have risen, and consumers aren't willing to pay those prices for every act that is on tour.
The live sector in turn blame the artists who, they argue, are now demanding such high fees that promoters have to increase ticket prices just to break even. But one William Morris agent, Marc Geiger, told the Journal that, while some artists probably have become greedy when setting their fees, the promoters brought it on themselves by starting a bidding war that allowed artists to name their price.
Alex Hodges, a VP for the House Of Blues group agrees: "The change has to be executed by the people who write the cheques, and that's the promoters".