Tour Prediction and Speculation Thread [ARCHIVED] Tour • Page 2071

I think Live Nation is a major culprit here considering how many venues they own.

 

A band called American Aquarium called out one of the bigger independent venues in OKC a couple of days ago for this

they also made it a point to mention all of the other venues they've played that didn't take a cut

 

Sure, but the way they frame the statement is that they are playing for “free”. They are not. They have a guarantee, plus they make 80% of merch (not saying I’m pro venue taking merch cut, I’m not, but artists also have choices when negotiating and deciding where they play - obviously they think playing these venues have a benefit so it’s a fee of doing business). They are clearly manipulating the narrative

 

I wish there was a dislike button

 

There is 0 reason for a venue to take a cut, ever.

 

not when 80% of venues are owned by Live Nation they don’t. How many 1k-3k clubs in your area aren’t owned by Livenation? I got one and it’s 1000k even

 

Why do venues need to take a merch cut? Aren’t artists already paying to rent out the venue which should include costs for staff/production costs/etc? Any cost that needs to be paid by an artist to book the venue should be up front. The venue didn’t help make the merch whatsoever and the artist is already paying to book the venue, which you would think would include the space/ability to sell merchandise.

 

I think the real question is "who needs who more?". It seems like aetists need the venue more than the venue needs the artists these days.

 

I wouldn't be shocked to find out that all of this ties to the corporate entities who own each of these clubs wanting to show financial "growth" each year. I have zero evidence to back this up, but it makes logical sense, as it's a pretty consistent theme throughout corporate America: "Oh, you made $X last year? Awesome! Now increase that by 10%! You can figure it out, I'm sure! Go do it... Or else."

And when you're a company like LiveNation, who already owns a shit-ton of music venues, and there's only so many dates per year? Figuring out ways to expand can get incredibly tricky and I can see some scummy middle-management dork coming up with the idea to add and/or up merchandise cuts as an easy to increase revenue.

 

It’s like owning a strip mall and thinking on top of the rent you get from your tenants that you get a cut of every Subway sandwich and hair cut. Absurd.

 

When I was touring, I had a band tell me specifically to have a sheet to keep track of what I sold and a fake sheet that would fudge numbers so they would have to take a lower cut. Venues were cut throat about that shit and it was 10 years ago.

 

Also a lot of venues make you count in and out with them. They also will have a person who’s whole job it is is to watch the merch people and make sure they aren’t going and getting more supply from the van or fudging numbers. I’ve also been that guy. Got 200 bucks towards rent for one nights work. Decent gig.

 

The times I've sold merch for touring acts, it all goes through an app and then the TM or Merch Manager will go through all the inventory, cash, and card sales. Imo venues shouldn't take a cut of sales since they make an absurd amount from the bar alone.

 

Yeah that’s just fucked up, like it doesn’t make any sense to me at all

 

ACAB includes venues that take merch cuts

 

Looking at going to a Bucks game and saw some $15 tickets (not resale) on Ticketmaster. Added 1 to cart and it had an extra $20 tacked on in fees. 133% in fees.

 

Silversun Pickups feel out of place in that tour

 

Don’t think there’s been an official announcement but Death Grips dates are popping up and I’m very excited

 

Isn’t SSPU bigger than Bush? We don’t need to go down the total Facebook likes / Instagram followed / Spotify plays hole. That was just my initial thought.