Our Top Story: As the music business continues to be at a near standstill, the fighting over what money there will be in the future has taken an ugly turn. Musicians today make the majority of their money on the road, selling merchandise, and they already lose a substantial cut of that to the promoters and venues. Given their size and clout, the majority of that money goes to Live Nation, the largest promoter and ticket seller in the country. You would think that would be enough for them to feel comfortable, but with the future of live performances in question still, you would be wrong.
Live Nation, with no warning to or input from artists, changed their financial rules, putting more of the risk on artists, and absolving themselves of as much liability as possible. The new rules do the following:
- Decrease guarantees to artists by 20%
- If Live Nation cancels a show, artists get 25% of the guarantee, down from 100%
- If an artist cancels a show, they must pay Live Nation DOUBLE the guarantee
Let's consider these new changes. As it stands right now, Live Nation estimates how much money a show is going to bring in, and gives the artists a guaranteed amount of money to play. That could be even more if the show does better than expected. So for the right to be the only company selling tickets to these shows, they pay the band a negotiated amount of money, and get to pocket a sizeable portion of revenue above that number. Live Nation is the promoter, so that profit is their payment for promoting the show. It's a fair deal.
Under these new rules, Live Nation is in some ways refusing to do their job. As a promoter, it is Live Nation's job to fill the seats, bring in the crowds, and generate revenue. The band's job is to play, which they will still be doing. So under these new proposals, the people working just as hard will be taking a pay cut, while Live Nation will be making more money for having less responsibility.
But let's take the bullet points one by one.
- Decreasing the guarantees to artists is actually a reasonable proposal. Since there is no way to know how many people are going to feel comfortable going out to shows in the near future, there is every reason to believe that less tickets are going to be sold, meaning there will be less money for everyone to share. Cutting the guarantees does not discount the possibility of everyone still making what they used to, but it is a shared risk for both parties. That is fair.
- Cutting the payout to an artist for a show you cancel is pathetic. It is shady business at best for Live Nation to book a show, reserve that day on a band's calendar where they could have been doing something else to make money, and then turn around and give them very little to compensate them when Live Nation can't do their job. Most cancellations are a result of poor ticket sales, which is Live Nation's responsibility. They now want to penalize the bands for them not being able to sell tickets. So long as the bands are willing and able to fulfill the date, it's not their fault Live Nation will take a loss on the show. Live Nation doesn't want any responsibility for their own inaction. That is expected, but horrible.
- The worst of these is the new conditions for when an artist has to cancel a show. I cannot see any scenario where it is morally acceptable to force a band to pay money out of their pockets to a promoter because a member is too ill to perform, let alone doubling the fee. In a time of a global pandemic, Live Nation is now putting in place a policy that would incentivize bands to stay on the road and play shows even while someone might be sick with a deadly and contagious virus, because they can't afford the cost of canceling a show. That is unconscionable.
Live Nation is setting up a system where bands get less money if they play shows, and lose everything if they can't. It's a lose-lose for the artists, and a stunning example of corporate greed. The only upside to this story is there are fears Live Nation might not be able to stay in business if the current climate holds for too long. While we don't want that to happen, for the sake of the bands who would be hurt, it would be a blessing to remove one predatory layer of the business from the equation.
Live Nation are just that; predators. They prey on bands who don't have the ability to make their own way, or fight for better terms. Live Nation is a cancer on music, and with these new rules, they aren't even trying to hide how sick they are.
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