Live Nation’s Rapino Speaks Out On Concert Industry Woes

The live music industry gathered recently in Las Vegas for trade magazine Pollstar’s annual Concert Industry Consortium.  Keynote speaker Michael Rapino, head of concert promotion giant Live Nation (formerly Clear Channel, formerly SFX) laid out a long overdue fact based account of problems facing the touring industry:

"…of the total American population, 71 percent did not attend a live concert last year…That means only 29 percent of the population do attend live concerts every year….we can group these fans based on the number of shows they attended in the past year. What we call our Occasional Goer, those who only attended one concert in the last year, represent 23 percent of the population. Our Concert Goer group, those attended two concerts in the past year, represent just four percent of the population. And finally, our heavy fans, those we have called our Concert Aficionados, who attend three or more concerts a year, represent a meager two percent of the total population."

…if we line up 100 random people against the wall…71 people never go to concerts. Why then do we spend millions of dollars on TV, radio & outdoor mass media trying to reach just these (other) 29 fans. Our advertising dollars are wasted on the 71 people who never come to concerts anyways…"

"We’ve got a lot to do, and we must re-engineer our business to service the new fan of today. The tables have turned. Power has shifted to the consumer….we need to remain immersed in technology, grounded in the streets and we must remain in constant contact with our customers…We must stop talking amongst ourselves. We need to start listening to the fan.

As someone who spends most their days doing business in the live music industry, I can confirm that the lack of creative promotion on both the local and national is one of my greatest frustrations.  Promoters have done little to change their promotion efforts even their fans habits have changed.20 or even 10 years ago promoters booked a band, hooked up a radio co-promotion, and  waited for the record label to spend money.  Today labels have stopped investing in new talent (particularly in any long term way) and the avid music fan is probably listening to online broadcasts, satellite radio, or their iPod. 

Things need to change in the live music industry including smarter promotion and a better fan experience. Rapino, Live Nation, and trade magazine Polltsar appear to be trying to be a catalyst for that change.

Pollstar Magazine is available by subscription in print and online here.  We’ve been lucky enough to attend the CIC conference for many years and this year gave a panel we’ve written about here called 100 Free & Affordable High And Low Tech Way To Promote Live Music.