On Sunday,  Peromyscus blogged on a piece I had found interesting, the Sunday Times article on the state of music by Simon Jenkins. Peromyscus spoke to the author’s assertion that rather than the disconnect afforded by the Internet, people were craving congregation. Do use the link I provided to check out L. Hopwood’s thoughts, it’s what I thought when I read first read the Jenkins article, Hopwood just beat me to it.  My thoughts that Peromyscus did not address were about what Jenkins said regarding cd sales falling and live music attendance increasing.  Recorded music is heading in the direction of becoming the promotion for the live event and that being how artists are going to be making their living. I can truly see that being the direction music will be heading in. Album/cd sales are down 10%, conversely, live event attendance is up 13%, despite ticket prices. Something will have to do something about the costs of attending events. Jenkins thinks people will pay whatever they have to but ticket prices prohibit a lot of people from attending concerts. I can’t imagine anyone, particularly the artist, would want live music to only be available to the elite who can afford it (yes I realize I’m a naive idealist, but please leave me that way). They’re also going to have to do something about ticket resellers. It wasn’t the Ahmet Ertugun Fund making £7,425 a ticket for O2, the tickets originally sold for £125. Who got the change? Seatwave, Viagogo, and eBay, are mentioned as top resellers of live event tickets. What was the profit distribution for them? Couldn’t find the answer by googling. *Edit 7/8/8 - Consumer Reports Article on ticket resellers, still don’t know who kept the £7300, fans? Doubtful. Ahmet Ertegun Fund? Ditto. Evil Entity? Absolutely.

Should my wildest dreams come true, and Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones rejoin musical forces and tour, I hereby promise them that I will attend whichever concert proves to be closest to my base. I also promise to purchase their recording should they issue one, and not download it (unless that is the mode of distribution).

Dave, Jimmy, Taylor and John after the Wembley gig 6/7/08