So what have we learned here?
1. Your image is everything. Think of your image first. Do nothing to jeopardize it. If Springsteen were on the way up as opposed to fading away, if he needed more hits, this flagging of good will would not only mean the loss of fans, but the loss of opportunities. Companies want to work with someone who is hot, not someone with a negative stink upon them.
2. Ticketmaster is the enemy. The truth doesn't matter, this is what the public believes. I'm surprised someone hasn't claimed that Ticketmaster stuffed ballot boxes to make sure Biden got elected, or that in reality Michael Rapino is Q.
3. Everybody has an opinion and everybody gets to express it. If this were the pre-internet era, this probably wouldn't have even been news. Maybe a major outlet in New York or New Jersey, Boss strongholds, would have picked up on it, but this story broke and grew online.
4. You can't be beholden to the crowd. You cannot cave to the people. The people are insatiable, you can never give them enough, you can never satisfy them. Your only option is to do what you want to. Could this have negative effects? Of course! But at least you're in control, you can go to bed saying you screwed up, as opposed to telling yourself you were going to do something else but you were negatively influenced.
5. Concert tickets are expensive and you cannot get what you want. There are few hidden acts anymore. You're either a legend, or big overnight, or you don't sell out. When everybody wants to go, prices go up, it's supply and demand, raw economics.
6. Everybody claims to be poor, but in truth they are not. If you're truly poor, you don't have internet access to complain, never mind the ability to travel to multiple Springsteen shows. The truly poor refrain from advertising their financial situation.
7. Music is a big business, it's a mature business. Only the strong survive. The major labels, Spotify, never mind Apple and Amazon, even Live Nation are all public companies. And when you're listed, money is everything.
8. The same people complaining about Springsteen ticket prices made stock bets on Robinhood, they are doing their best to get ahead, because if you're not in America you fall behind.
9. Ticket prices are not getting cheaper. Sure, festivals are being canceled because of low ticket sales. But if you're a star, you do business, the only issue is what you can charge, and right now that's over a C-note for essentially all the tickets.
Damage control has begun:
"Ticketmaster Says Most Bruce Springsteen Tickets Go for Under $200, and Only 11% are Part of Controversial ‘Dynamic Pricing’ Program":
bit.ly/3zsyxz4 This is what Ticketmaster is paid to do. Take the heat for the artist's greed. Which is why you hate Ticketmaster. Your favorite artist can't be at fault, NO WAY!
Springsteen has played this beautifully. And now he may not have culpable deniability, but something akin to that. Whereas if Bruce had said ANYTHING, he would have been deemed guilty. Anything other than everybody gets their money back and I'm gonna play for free in everybody's living room would be considered inadequate.
Which is why you don't see politicians responding to inane commentary, like with Obama's birth certificate. Obama ignored the claims for years, and then when he finally produced his birth certificate it wasn't sufficient, no, they needed the LONG FORM birth certificate. They still believe Obama was not born in the United States. If you say ANYTHING it amplifies the story.
This is what the internet has wrought. Being above the fray for eons, out of touch with the people they believe they control, politicians, celebrities, most with a profile have been caught off guard by public opinion, which used to be limited to private discussion, but is now posted online for everybody to see. And for a few years, the famous thought that everybody saw these denunciations, these pokes at them, but now, with so much sludge in the channel, the hatred doesn't get traction unless YOU RESPOND TO IT!
You start off looking for any and all traction, and then you have to pull back. This has been the rule in celebrity publicity forever. But since celebrities can now interact personally online, and traditional PR people are unaware of the rules, cultivating relationships with major publications as opposed to trawling social media, celebrities get in scuffles on a regular basis online, and then the story becomes news!
You have no idea how many outlets thrive on these stories. They love the click-bait headlines. Celebrities create traffic. Which is how these companies make their bread. If you're famous and you say ANYTHING outlets will pick up on it, create a story about it, even if really there's no story at all.
This is the modern world.
Also, in the modern world, you have access to data. That Twitter hater who excoriates you every day, almost always utilizing a fake name? Check them out, some of them don't have ANY followers. It's like fishing. They're just trying to catch something, odds are low, but you never know.
I don't care what is said by Ticketmaster, the variable pricing of Springsteen tickets was screwed up. But having said that, you can spin, you can lie, and you'd be stunned how many buy your explanation, especially when it comes to something as minor as entertainment.
But now, Ticketmaster, which shares the most hated title with your cable company, has pushed back a bit, because the company has nothing to lose!
So what is the truth?
It's ALWAYS up for debate!
Expect Springsteen to stay silent.
But what does this bode for the future?
NOT MUCH!
Let's see... Motley Crue signed IN BLOOD that they would never tour again. And not twenty or thirty years later, but soon thereafter, they reneged.
What about all those people who overpaid for the last tour?
THEY'RE THRILLED! They get to see the band again!
Yes, talk to those who paid hundreds of dollars to see the Crue on their "final" tour. Nobody is pissed, everybody is happy. The only people who are angry are those who would never go to a Crue show to begin with. As for casual fans... Do you think at this late date Motley Crue has casual fans? NO WAY! It's their hard core keeping them alive, the looky-loos moved on long ago.
Or, as my nephew, the world class foreign car salesman tells me... The people who pay the most are the happiest. Seems counterintuitive, they got ripped off. But they got what they wanted, they're happy. Whereas those who got a deal... Did they get the best deal? If they'd paid more would they have gotten exactly what they wanted?
Same deal with concert tickets. It's those who buy the overpriced platinum tickets up front who are happiest, those who buy the overpriced scalper tickets. So, those who actually have tickets to Springsteen shows are never going to bitch.
As for those boxed out...
They would have complained no matter what. The tickets were inherently too expensive. They didn't get the right seat, they didn't get tickets to multiple shows. Are these superfans going to sit out the next tour? NO! If anything they'll be more prepared, because they want to GO!
This is not Billy Squier, cavorting in pink on MTV. If he'd been in business for decades, had multiple hit albums, Squier would have been able to continue. But he hadn't yet cemented his fan base. Furthermore, MTV rocketed you to space and you fell back to earth just as fast. Nothing burns you out as much as television exposure, at least when there were so few outlets. Actually, now it's the opposite. You're thrilled about that TV appearance, and the end result? NOTHING! Kind of like comedians still looking for sitcoms, that paradigm died years ago. You make your bones on social media and you cement your career with specials, on Netflix or HBO. That's where fans go. You can do a sitcom, which is far from your core competence, which is writing and telling jokes, and you have to bland down your personality, work 24/7, and almost no one sees you, not even your fans. Furthermore, pay is decreased. You're actually taking yourself OUT OF THE MARKETPLACE!
I used to be flummoxed that Bill Maher announced all his live dates at the end of "Real Time" on HBO. In fact, I thought it was cheesy. But in today's world, HOW ELSE ARE PEOPLE GOING TO KNOW?
Think about it, a star can come through your burg and you had no idea they were there. Awareness is everything. If you've got people's attention, seal the deal. As for trying to grow your audience, most effort other than your core work pays very few dividends. Want to broaden your appeal? Write better jokes, record better songs. That's the fastest way to more acceptance, not a feature in the paper, on TV, ANYWHERE!
So I won't say that Springsteen dodged a bullet here. But I will say that this will blow over. Even the hard core fans. They've got lives outside Bruce Springsteen. It's not the seventies with limited cash and options where you'd listen to one act and one act only, never mind the plethora of other diversions commanding your time and interest.
Bruce Springsteen wants to make bank. I dare you to find one single act that doesn't care about the money, getting paid. THAT'S WHY THEY DO IT! And you don't own the act, the act has no responsibility to you. Just like you've got no responsibility to pay for a ticket. But when it all blows over...YOU WANT TO GO!
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