SXSW: Betchya Didn’t Know The Justice Dept Was There!

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So I was nosing around the ‘net last night and kinda sorta wishing I had gone to SXSW to see some cool music. But there is more than music there, did you realize that? Every year I get requests from blogger buddies for ideas and votes for panels. Yeah, people sit around and talk. And in the frenzy of music reporting, it’s often not until weeks later that we hear anything about these panels. Well Jim DeRogatis of the Chicago Sun Times did some good reporting on a very interesting panel… a panel that we as supporters of independent music should take GREAT INTEREST in. Scoot over to his blog and read the run down of the panel “Creative Capitol: Music, Culture and Policy under Obama,” with Assistant Attorney General Christine Varney, of the Obama administration Justice Department. She was the key player in the merger between Ticketmaster and Live Nation back in January.

This panel shed no light on the matter, of course. The same story was trotted out. Basically these politicos pretend their hands are tied due to our hallowed American values of “free enterprise” and the importance of maintaining an unhindered, competitive market. So just because Ticketmaster/Live Nation “will manage artists, book their concerts, own the concert venues, sell the tickets, sell the merchandise and concessions and in some cases act as the record company,” that is of little concern to Ms. Varney. All the Justice Department can do is hope to peek from time to time at their ticketing practices. (!)

Oh, there’s more to it. Jim’s blog gives you the deeper story about the connections between members of the boards of directors of Ticketmaster and Live Nation and the White House, and details on what exactly how the Administration plans to support the music industry. Seriously, go read it.

Are there alternatives?

Hell yes. Regular readers, you know I don’t personally give a penny to Ticketmaster or Live Nation. If a show is booked at the Vic Theater here in Chicago, I buy at the box office. If it’s somewhere that I cannot do that, I don’t go, end of story. I will not pay the 20-35% of the price of my ticket that is tacked on in fees, to see a live show. That, to my way of thinking, is immoral and insulting to my efforts to support live music, musicianship and especially the culture of independent music. I came of age when this incarnation of independent music was just beginning. I was 15 in 1979 and later, when I learned about the bands I had heard and sought out, I appreciated the effort they made to create and distribute their own work, outside the labels. By the time I was 20, in 1984, I was going to those shows and giving them my money too, buying those homemade cassettes and hand inked zines. So no, don’t ask me to pay your corporation 25% more for the pleasure of purchasing my ticket over the telephone. No thank fuck you.

Now, readers, I won’t ask you to do the same. Artists need to be paid and labels do still need to exist. Even independent labels now use venues that Ticketmaster and Live Nation control. The world is not so simple, I know this. My choice is, as is so often, emotionally based. And perhaps not best if enacted en masse. But I do want you to know that there are people and labels and plenty of venues who do take a stand against these rapist corporations. (and they are rapists, I don’t use that word lightly.)

Todd Martens from the LA Times music blog, spoke with Matador’s Gerard Cosloy and Domino’s Kris Gillespie, he reports:

“Concert tickets for artists on Matador and Domino cost far less than the multi-hundred dollar seats for the Eagles, but they’re still greater than the cost of a digital album download. Additionally, Cosloy noted that recent albums from Sonic Youth and Yo La Tengo failed “to sell as many copies as we would have liked,” but ticket sales were strong. Tickets, he added, weren’t exactly cheap, and then were saddled with service charges that ranged between $10 and $20.

It caused the band and label to change its approach, opting to hit venues that aren’t locked-in with Ticketmaster deals to avoid surcharges. Said Cosloy, “This spring, they only played shows if there was no ticket charge…. It completely changed the complexion as to what kind of venues they were going to play. It worked out all right, but they had to make a great sacrifice to make it affordable.”

Now go buy yourself and your brother the latest Sonic Youth and Yo La Tengo records!! Martens goes on to say, “Gillespie chimed in, saying the label would rather see fans paying for a $6.99 download than a $10 service charge.” Doesn’t that make sense? Yes, it’s awesome to love bands that nobody’s heard of yet. But when they explode on the scene we could be even happier for them knowing that they could sign to a label that had this philosophy. Go buy a record from Domino Records!!

Entomology

Josef K

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