According to Pollstar’s numbers, the concert industry made more money this year than it did last year, but sold fewer tickets. You can find the WSJ Article here.

What does this mean? Promoters raised prices. Now, how much of the 3% decline in ticket volume is related to the economy versus the almost 8% rise in price is related to the economy is anyone’s guess, but I think this picture could get a lot bleaker if the industry doesn’t come to Jesus. Quick. And I’m not talking about incorrect ticket pricing (this time), although I do still believe the industry is stuck in the dark ages on that front too.

It’s about embracing technology. Tech enables you to do things faster, cheaper, and better, but the concert and live entertainment industry has been slow to really embrace what tech can do for them. Trust me. Some folks are just anti-change (some of our clients are this way).

I read today that the Seattle Theater Group is dumping Ticketmaster in favor of one of our competitors, Tickets.com (too bad, STG – allllllmost a win). The most telling quote in the development is from STG Executive Director Josh Labelle:

“We look at Tickets.com as a technology company, less so as a ticketing company.”

YES, YES! Ticketing is just the beginning. Technology is the evolution. Venues, Promoters, and Artists have to start asking about how the technology in their partnerships (especially ticketing providers) is helping them reach more fans and sell more tickets. We’ve been innovating in this space for years and have tons of tools for integrating into the leading social media networks. I’m not sure how much more simplistic it can be: entertainers generate fans; ticketing companies should be able to connect to those fans, and help those fans reach and connect to each other.

I spoke with a young lady in the promotions business a couple of months ago who was using TicketWeb / Ticketmaster for their ticketing operations because of their “marketing” features. I showed her on paper how she was literally costing her company over a million dollars a year, ticketing fees that her customers are currently paying to TicketWeb that her company could keep if they went with an alternative provider.

What could you do with $1 million additional advertising? To cap it all off, with just a little effort, this marketing moron could have created her own online community around her act and had a marketing machine that was several times more efficient and long lasting (their show is targeted at kids, and several studies show that moms in general are very active online). FAIL.

Until the concert (and live entertainment) industry embraces the technology to improve their operations, they will have to continue to raise prices in order to deliver growth. And eventually (read: THIS YEAR) the customers will have enough and they will collectively say, “No, thanks.”