"There ain't no cure for the summertime blues," 1950s rocker Eddie Cochran once lamented. Ironically, it would be musicians like Cochran who would find a "cure" of sorts by performing on some of the biggest stages in the country during the summer season.
Romantic notions of youth lost, recaptured, immortalized or just enjoyed swirl about the summer concert scene like so many jagged guitar riffs or ear-aching drum solos. Everyone's got a summer concert story and whether sad or happy, most will likely end with a wistful smile.
Yet in 2004 the magic of the season seemed to depart quietly. This summer ticket sales have slumped deeply and across the board. Speculation is running high regarding the reasons for these slumps, with the responsibility of major losses hanging over the music industry's head like a pendulum ready to fall.
Jason Geisinger, a member of AU's Student Union Board and a production assistant at the Nissan Pavilion, attributes the summer drop to several factors.
"Ticket [prices] went up an astonishing amount this summer," Geisinger said. "File sharing has caused artists to demand more from concert sales to make up for the drop in CD sales. Also you have just plain greed, with booking agents and management trying to get as much as they can from ticket sales before the market tells them they went too far."
Freshman Anne Paschke also says she felt the sting of higher prices this past summer.
"I just didn't go to any concerts this summer," Paschke said. "High prices for bands I wasn't dedicated to just turned me off."
Touring magazine Pollstar documented a 13 percent increase in the average ticket price (to $58.71) this year in its mid-year report. This, in turn, is a 100 percent increase in the past nine years.
A 35 percent decline in ticket sales for the nation's top 50 amphitheaters was a result.
"We keep pushing the envelope on ticket prices and I think it's finally gone beyond the pale a little bit," Pollstar editor Gary Bongiovanni told CNN/Money Online on June 25. "Consumers are voting with their wallets and they're keeping them in their pockets."
Three days before Bongiovanni gave his comments on the immense pre-summer drop off, Lollapalooza cancelled its tour, perhaps the most dramatic symbol of low ticket sales' far reaching effects.
Once lauded as the zenith of the alternative rock festival, Lollapalooza was only in the second year of its comeback after a six-year hiatus when the decision was made to pull the plug and offer ticket holders full refunds. The Associated Press reported that "organizers and promoters faced with several million dollars of losses made the very tough decision to pull the tour."
Jane's Addiction member and tour co-founder Perry Farrell stated on the tour's Web site that the cancellation was "a true indication of the general health of the touring industry and it is across musical genres."
This seems very telling, considering older and more established acts are feeling the pinch both by fans and outside factors.
This summer, Marc Anthony, Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera and David Bowie were forced to cancel their tours because of circumstances beyond their control. With them went a large chunk of summer profits.
In addition, acts that have proven to be considerable draws in the past have been coming up short this season. Such performers who fell into this category included Van Halen's reunion tour with Sammy Hager, Aerosmith, Eric Clapton, Fleetwood Mac and the Dead, as reported by The Boston Herald.
Van Halen in particular would have been part of Clear Channel's promotion to cut prices of concerts in the $50-plus range to only $20 for selected days.
Despite lagging numbers in many categories, there were some considerable successes to be had in the summer of 2004.
The 10th anniversary of the Vans Warped Tour - with its moderately priced tickets and huge lineup - increased sales 23 percent from last year, selling more than 600,000 tickets nation-wide, according to Reuters.
Ozzfest also proved to be very successful, capitalizing on last-second ticket slashing at the box office as well as the excitement over the reunions of Judas Priest and Black Sabbath.
Madonna, despite having extremely pricey dates all over the country, also cleaned up rather nicely. Maybe the most surprising coup of the summer slump, though, belonged to Prince, who cashed in on a surprise resurgence of his music as well as a new album.
The summer of 2005 already holds a great amount of promise for music lovers.
Lightning Dimensions Magazine is already reporting possible U.S. tours for Paul McCartney, the Rolling Stones, U2 and the Who. Whether or not ticket prices will increase to coincide with this anticipation will yet to be seen for some time.
