Taylor Swift plays the Bridgestone Arena multiple nights in a row here in Nashville and sells them all out.
Tickets get expensive. Really expensive. Up into the high hundreds, even $1000 a ticket.
What is interesting is that on any of those given nights you could go to any number of other venues in town and hear live bands with a female lead singer singing Taylor Swift songs for $5 at the door.
Same songs.
Same city.
Same night.
$5 vs. $1000.
Free parking vs. $30 parking
$2 beer vs. $12 beer
Manageable crowd vs. a hurricane of a crowd
The $5 show is a deal in every way possible!!!
But you don’t choose that one.
Because you want to see a star.
Because a star has power.
We want to feel the power of someone leading us.
We want to believe they know where the destination is and all we have to do is ride along.
I moved to Nashville 13 years ago, almost to the day.
And for 13 years I’ve heard thousands of independent artists telling, pleading, begging, convincing people to buy their CD.
“Buy my $10 CD to support me and support music”.
But I don’t buy or listen to music in order to support and enhance artists’ careers. I buy and listen because it because it supports me and makes me feel good. It supports my cause.
I don’t buy clothes from TopMan to support TopMan. I buy them to support me looking how I want to look.
I don’t buy chicken sandwiches from Chic Fil A to support a cause. I buy them because I’m hungry and their chicken sandwiches taste good to me.
I didn’t buy a Fender bass when I was 13 to make sure Fender kept making basses. I bought it because it made me feel good and empowered.
There’s much more power selling something in a way that will “support their cause” rather than “support my cause”.
A few weeks ago I was wasting time during the day on Facebook and came across one of the best, funniest, geeky music world posts and comment feeds I’ve ever seen. I had to contribute. And I must share.
A musician friend of mine, Stephan Mason, posted the following:
In-studio dude band archetypes:
Don’t leave me out guy Always right guy Let’s not fight guy I hate you guys guy
And now, these are just some comments from the comments section. If you get it, you get it.
This production demeans my art guy Runs studio intern ragged for his own selfishness guy I could take it or leave it guy
Makes hand and arm movements to explain an arrangement in his head guy Analog is smoother than digital guy Can we bump up the tempo guy
We gotta get out and network guy There’s a click that’s bothering me somewhere around 1:41 guy Let’s just cut and paste it guy
Let’s do another take just so we have it guy I thought the last one was good guy This isn’t radio enough guy I don’t want to copy them but I want the feel to be like Coldplay guy
Art guy Money guy Talent guy Pizza guy
Let’s celebrate writing the hook with a shot guy Do you think the message is coming across guy Let’s all stop for a second and pray guy
The acoustic almost sounds TOO good guy This is perfect for tv and film guy I played this for my wife and she LOVED it guy
I just want to make sure we can still press vinyl guy I’m going to start talking as we listen back to the take guy I just think it’s our season guy
