With the Grammys, dirty Super Bowl Halftime shows, and a whole bunch of other concert adventures going on these last couple weeks, things have been pretty busy, so here’s a special extended concert news round-up!
Kid Rock Tells Off “So-Called” Fans
We’ve shared with you one amazing story of how a Kid Rock fan made a dream come true. And as MLive reports, Kid Rock fans spoke their minds about the rocker’s decision to play on in spite of bad weather in Arkansas because he’s never missed a show.
And then Kid Rock responded loud and clear.
He started off the post by assuring fans refunds to the Little Rock show were available.
“It’s this simple, If you bought tix to tonights show and can’t make it, YOU WILL BE GETTING A REFUND, STRAIGHT OUT OF MY POCKET. I’ve never ripped any of my fans off, EVER!!!”
Kid then addressed his critics.
“I have also NEVER missed a show. I know there are people who drove here from Memphis and Oklahoma, been in [their] cars all day driving and dealing with this sh**ty weather, the same as me and my band have the WHOLE TOUR. You so called ‘fans’ on my website bitchin and moanin and saying I’m greedy, can GO F**K YOURSELVES, plain and simple. Throw out my cd’s and lose my number, I don’t want drama kings and queens like yall anywhere around myself, band, crew, family or my fans.”
Pretty bold move by Kid Rock and I have even more respect for him that I did before. What do you think of Kid Rock’s response?
LCD Sound System Sticks It to Scaplers, Then Reality Hits
Keeping our fan-centric news theme going, LCD Sound System‘s James Murphy shows his love and dedication to fans and had this to say in a press release after they announced the farewell “Long Good Bye” show at New York’s MSG just got longer. The first show on April 2nd at Madison Square Garden sold out quickly, and new shows were added just as fast at the Terminal 5.
And Murphy had a few choice words for the scalpers:
“… We were more than taken aback and surprised about the speed of ticket sales for the April 2nd MSG gig, as well as the effectiveness of scalper pieces of fucking shit at getting their hands on said tickets before fans could, and it’s knocked us on our asses… We never dreamed some shitbags would try to get THOUSANDS for our show. It’s insane…
Of course, fans appreciated the optimistic gesture by Murphy. But today via their website LCD Sound System is realizing and reminding fans of the sobering reality of trying to achieve a service fee-free and fan-centric ticket selling process:
“…as an attempt to avoid the “secondary market”) there will be no hard tickets. the only way to get in to terminal 5 on the nights of the shows will be to show i.d. at will call and then immediately enter the venue.
we’re told that ticketmaster will also sweep the online purchases daily and delete any duplications from potential scalper bots. (please come to the venue early on show nights – the line for entry may be long). if the tickets for the shows don’t sell out very quickly, we’ll stop the duplicate ticket thing and allow people to buy tickets for multiple nights. (just want to make sure all who want to go get a ticket before “multiples”, if that makes any sense).”
Sounds like yet another reason to start a Concert Fans Complaints Choir.
Roadies To Picket U2 Show
On the night of the Grammys, according to Pollstar: The South African Roadies Association intended to mount a picket backstage at the U2 Johannesburg concert venue during U2’s visit to South Africa. SARA reason for picketing was “to highlight the travesty and affront that such sponsorship and service use support of untransformed companies represents,” the open letter said.
But by the looks of the video above the show went on with out any problems. Bono is strong and healthy after his recent back injury, and U2 is once again rocking the Claw Stage.
And as of this post, no other news about the picketing has been reported. If you have any tips or info about the picket, please let us know.
Ticketmaster’s Future?
Billboard talks with Live Nation/Ticketmaster’s Irving Azoff about why live music is important, future plans to improve the business of selling tickets and a possible deal Groupon-type partnership with another online discounting service.
Is Live Nation/Ticketmaster Delivering the Goods in Their Online Communities?
As part of our Live Nation/Ticketmaster exploration, we’ve been following the development of Ticketmaster’s Ticketology blog and recently they used the blog to announce a new My Cart” function to the ticket buying process. It might make the ticket-buying process a little less annoying, but it’s really not that huge of change or adding any great value for fans. And, I’m sad to say that I was expecting a lot more from the content on Ticketology.
So far the new Ticketology blog really hasn’t delivered the goods or provided that exclusive inside look into the Ticketmaster side of the business like they had promised.
That said, I’d also like to see more transparency and open conversation on Ticketology, and on their Facebook page that claims to be “a 24/7 community of live music fans…”
And to be honest, even though the Live Nation Facebook page does ask some fun concert fan questions, so far there isn’t really that much of a community being created. It’s more about concert promotion and less about celebrating the concert fan experience or educating fans about the ticket-selling process, if you ask me. Live Nation might be trying to cultivate conversations about social media changing live music, but I’d like to see them create a true community for concert fans.
Are you a fan on the Live Nation Facebook page? What do you think of their online communities?
How Has Mobile Changed the Live Music Industry?
Continuing our exploration of mobile and live music, The Appconomy takes a deep look at the direct and indirect impact of mobile on the live music experience.
That’s it for now and thanks for following along. We invite you to catch up on other Concert News and let us know what was your favorite news story this week.
Did we overlook something? Don’t hold back, and by all means, please enlighten us and share your thoughts in the comments!