That ticket could get you more than just entry into a concert

Free subscriptions, CDs and other extras now add to the experience, and sometimes the price tag

By Peggy McGlone
THE (NEWARK, N.J.) STAR-LEDGER
Saturday, May 13, 2006

Go online to get tickets to a summer concert and you'll be offered the chance to purchase the band's latest CD or membership to its fan club. Or maybe you'll receive a free recording or magazine subscription with your transaction.

It's the music industry's version of "You want fries with that?" — and it's here to stay.

As the summer concert season gets under way, consumers are being swamped with more sales pitches than ever before. Buy a pair of seats from Ticketmaster to a Bruce Springsteen and the Seeger Sessions Band concert, and for $16.99 you can also have the CD shipped to your door.

Pearl Jam's self-titled studio album is available for $16.99 with the purchase of seats to the band's concerts. A Counting Crows fan club membership — at a cost of $29.99 — can be had with tickets to its concerts (the band's tour brings it to Texas in September).

There's also a slew of freebies — from one-year subscriptions to Rolling Stone magazine to a CD of New Cars and Blondie songs — available on the Ticketmaster site.

"We're seeing more and more of it," said Gary Bongiovanni, editor of Pollstar, a magazine covering the concert industry. "If someone is trying to buy tickets to a Jimmy Buffett concert, that's a logical person to try to sell the live recording or hawk his frozen chicken wings to."

Called target marketing, or up-selling, it first took off in 2004, when Prince included his "Musicology" CD with the purchase of concert tickets. The promotion pushed the record up the charts and created a buzz from the fan base. Industry executives faced with ever-declining sales took notice.

"It's not just an answer to declining record sales. The concert business has been flat, too," said Ray Waddell, senior touring editor at Billboard. "This creates awareness about the event, the artist. It's a way to bring excitement to the whole thing."

The marketing technique focuses on likely fans, providing them with something they presumably want.

"It's smart marketing, the same way there's an impulse item at the supermarket checkout," said Jim Steen, spokesman for LiveNation, a concert promoter/operator that runs venues in New Jersey. Add-on offers are available with tickets to most concerts at those venues this summer.

The artists and management want these services, and they ask the venues and promoters to provide them. They reach out to Ticketmaster, according to David Goldberg, executive vice president of sales and marketing.

"Most of these things are driven by our clients, promoters or venues. We provide our distribution systems, they direct us how to use them," Goldberg said. "We are offering things that are relevant. Selling a parking spot or a CD, or maybe in the future, a piece of merchandise. They ought to be relevant, provide a service."

Goldberg wouldn't discuss how the revenues are shared, though Waddell said the artist, promoter and Ticketmaster all get a piece.

The add-ons are clearly marked on the Ticketmaster site, although fans rushing to navigate the Web site to get in-demand seats might not notice they're adding $17 to their purchase. Goldberg said there's no intent to put one over on the buyers.

"We always strive to make things as clear as possible. We don't want to disrupt someone from buying a ticket," he said, adding that if a mistake occurs, "we seek to rectify the situation via customer service."

Ticketmaster also discounts the notion that an add-on purchase will result in a better ticket. That is not the case. Waddell said the value-added strategies of selling or giving away records and other merchandise are more attempts to thwart the secondary ticket market and keep more revenue in the pockets of the artist and music industry. Whereas ticket brokers charge more for the same product, this kind of bundled sale creates revenue that goes to the artist.

"Ticketmaster facilitates it, so they get a fee, and their service fee is also on there, but primarily the benefit is to the artist," Waddell said.

Today's ticket and record offers are just the beginning. Both Waddell and Bongiovanni predict more opportunities as the technology improves and the music industry responds to fans' increasing demands.

"Fans require more today, they need more than to just show up," Waddell said. "The key in all entertainment is some form of interactivity, being involved in the process. We'll see more in the future."