Summer Slump for Concert Industry?

More speculation about a tough summer for the concert industry. Hypebot asks some great questions in regards to the industry’s general interest in big acts selling high-end tickets in large venues. Perhaps the wealth can simply be spread amongst the second- and third-tier live acts, playing smaller spots? My sense is that the larger industry giants are continuing to lose ground, both in sales of recordings and concert tickets. While their slump continues, we continue to see underground, independent acts finding innovative ways to get their songs heard and get fans to shows, which is fine by me.

The summer festival and concert season is alive and well in my book. Check out Pitchfork or Jambase for plenty of examples. I already bought my tickets to Lollapalooza and that’s (hopefully) just the beginning.

Lots of New Takes on Larger Music Industry Woes:

• Mintel study on state of recording industry, which points a large portion of the blame on the industry itself. Nice to see some more substantial criticism of the ongoing meme that file-sharing has been the only problem.

• Electronic Frontier Foundation: Digital distribution on the rise

• Great story in the San Diego Tribune on the potential of the album losing importance and the single regaining it in the digital world

• The Long Tail forecasts the end of the music “hit” (oh, and if you’re not familiar with the Chris Anderson’s “long tail” theory, take a look around the site; apparently the Wired editor is now turning his idea of Internet niching into a book)

• Pitchfork’s Interviews Steve Gordon of Digital Music News: Live at the Witch Trials (referencing the RIAA lawsuits)

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