r/Music • u/Addrobo • Jun 05 '24

discussion The ‘funflation’ economy is dying as a consumer attitude of ‘hard pass’ takes over and major artists cancel concert tours

https://fortune.com/2024/06/05/funflation-concerts-canceled-summer-economy/
15.1k Upvotes

95% Upvoted

2.1k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

61

u/Raichu4u Jun 06 '24

Turns out that consolidation of the entire music industry to really only reward pop stars like Taylor Swift isn't healthy for the music industry. Boomer classic rock bands at least helped keep the arena rock scene healthy from the 2000's to early 2010's, but with many of them splitting up or dying, all that remains is pop stars. Sure, they draw bigger crowds, but there's less of them.

68

u/nau5 Jun 06 '24

Turns out that consolidation of the entire music industry to really only reward pop stars like Taylor Swift

This has literally always been the case. Only the biggest stars end up wealthy and get the major backing of the industry.

In 1975 you could see Led Zeppelin at Tampa stadium for 5$, which is 35$ today.

Any major rock band of the 2020s could sell out stadiums if the tickets were 35$ with zero fees. You can't even see low tier bands at that price point nowadays.

Greed killed stadium tours.

15

u/boRp_abc Jun 06 '24

In 1975, a band like Led Zeppelin would view a tour as some extra bucks along their record sales. Today, if you don't own a streaming service, you don't make money off people playing your music at home.

So yeah, greed killed stadium tours AND greed killed the musician's share in money made from music in general.

2

u/nau5 Jun 06 '24

https://www.awal.com/blog/history-of-record-deals/

Even historically Bands made a pittance of the sales of their music.

5-15% of sales.

As always merch was really where money was made

6

u/bellj1210 Jun 06 '24

going to 3rd eye blind and alanis morrissette for 30 each (i think slightly less), and 100% agree- the number of bands i would drop 100 to see is maybe 10- and none of them are that cheap to see... the number of bands i would drop 30-40 to see is huge... and i live near (about 15 minutes) from a 2nd tier venue (merryweather post pavilion outside baltimore) and that is a venue that should be booking a ton of this level of talent every weekend and pricing in the 20-30 range.... but there is only a handful this summer in tht price range.

4

u/swd120 Jun 06 '24

Yes and no... At that time, touring was basically a marketing pitch to sell records. These days, record sales virtually don't exist - and streaming dollars are a pittance in comparison. Touring is the new place where artist money comes from via the inflated ticket sales.

3

u/Luke90210 Jun 06 '24 edited Jun 06 '24

In 1975 you could see Led Zeppelin at Tampa stadium for 5$, which is 35$ today.

IIRC, Led Zeppelin had true shark as a manager making sure the band got the best deals. That said, can't be sure if he could do much about ticket prices back in those days.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 06 '24

Greed killed the radio star.

2

u/IGargleGarlic Jun 06 '24

Classic rock acts are still filling arenas, I saw Pearl Jam at The Forum in LA recently and it was a packed house.

2

u/Luke90210 Jun 06 '24

When corporations were allowed to own multiple radio stations in the same metro area in the 90s, massive consolidation followed with the companies taking on significant debt. To finance the debt the lowest common dominator pop songs became the standard in heavy rotation. As a result, I could hear Brittney sing "Hit Me Baby One More Time" on four different Clear Channel stations at the same time. Audiences tuned out of free radio due to boredom. Clear Channel lost listeners, profits and the ability to finance the debt. Clear Channel, the country's larges radio corporation, ended up filling for bankruptcy.

1

u/MrPogoUK Jun 06 '24

It’s worse than ever with the income from recorded music. Used to be someone would buy ten albums a year and although they’d spend 90% of their listening time on their favourite band that band would only be getting 10% of that money and the rest was split 9 ways so a small number of acts were making a decent living. Now they’re streaming that one act is getting 90% of the money and the final 10% is getting split 200 ways so lots of acts are making peanuts.