Concert Industry Roundup

It’s been a while since I covered the Concert Industry on LMB. I don’t have much of an excuse as I am arguably much closer to it on a daily basis after my last career move. Whatever mental block I had has now faded, so I thought it was time for an industry links post to start getting back into it. Yeehaw.

Live Nation has dropped the “Fillmore” Name from Philly’s TLA. A while back, I was pretty critical of Live Nation’s move towards re-branding well-established venues with new brands like the Fillmore. As it turns out, that didn’t work so well for the Theatre of the Living Arts in Philly, as they’ve gone back to the good old TLA original naming. I said it a year ago and I’ll say it again: let’s leave the well-established venue names alone. If we want to set up new venues under the Fillmore, HOB or other venue brands, that’s fine. A new Fillmore East could actually be really cool. But if it’s an established venue like the TLA or Irving Plaza, the re-naming is simply a marketing ploy. How about we focus our “re-vamping” on the things that fans actually see and care about: the bands that are booked, the prices of tickets and drinks, and the physical facilities (bars, bathrooms, stage set-up, webcasting/recording functionality, etc.)?

Eliot at Listening Post seems pretty impressed with FanPrice, the new name-your-own-price site for concert tickets. I do like the idea that unsold tickets can help bring the price down…remember, not all secondary ticketing raises the price.

Last.fm, has partnered with Bowery Presents for concerts. Pretty cool to see more online partnerships between venues and music-oriented social networks. Expect to see more of these kinds of deals in the future.

JamBase is now syndicating its concert database to imeem and Fuzz.com. Good stuff. After all these years, JamBase is still one of my go-to sites for checking concert listings. Nice work, JamBasers.

Ticketmaster debuted its “Paperless Ticket,” allowing for fans to enter concerts with an ID and a credit card rather than dealing with paper tickets (that can be stolen, sold, or lost). Good to see Ticketbastard doing some innovating of their own.

Live Nation has teamed with AT&T Blueroom for concert webcasts. Better later than never. Schedule for June:
— June 6: John Mayer
— June 13: Coheed & Cambria
— June 20: Seether
— June 27: The Black Crowes

“Playable Search” site, Seeqpod, has launched playable event guides for festivals, concerts, and other events with audio. Here’s an example for the upcoming Bonnaroo festival, featuring festival headliners:

Hat tip to Listening Post for the link.

Any other concert industry news we should be reporting? Drop a comment and let us know.