{"id":1020,"date":"2007-03-06T08:29:45","date_gmt":"2007-03-06T16:29:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp\/2007\/03\/your_income_statement_will_tel\/"},"modified":"2007-03-06T08:29:45","modified_gmt":"2007-03-06T16:29:45","slug":"your_income_statement_will_tel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/main\/your_income_statement_will_tel.php","title":{"rendered":"Your income statement will tell you what you sell"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last month, Ozzy and Sharon Ozbourne announced a new strategy<\/a> for their annual summer Ozzfest concert tour. Their response to rising production costs, rising ticket prices, and declining attendance is this: stop charging customers to come, and stop paying bands to play<\/i>.<\/p>\n

Essentially, through their new ”free admission” policy, Ozzfest is refocusing what it sells and to whom it sells it. The traditional model (familiar to promoters and arts folks alike) suggests you pay the performers and their production costs, then charge a ticket price that will cover that cost plus earn a profit (or get donors to pay the difference). The “free fest” version of Ozzfest has decided, instead, to sell the audience<\/i> to major sponsors, and sell the positive exposure of performing to emerging metal bands who will waive their fees or even pay to play. They’re also hoping some big-name bands will want a piece of the hype, and will perform a few tour dates for free.<\/p>\n

Of course, a high volume of attendees, even if they don’t buy tickets, will pay for t-shirts, parking, beverages, and other merchandise while they’re there.<\/p>\n

It’s an interesting and risky response to a faltering business model. And there’s no telling the unexpected effects it may bring to the festival (reduced perceived value, for example, or no-name bands). But the inversion isn’t a new one in the entertainment world.<\/p>\n

Television has always<\/i> been in the business of selling its audience to advertisers — the shows produced and presented are the bait, not the product. And the nonprofit arts, judging by many of their income statements, are often in the business of convincing major donors and foundations to give them cash. An associate of mine admits his primary focus is selling six tickets a year — the gifts of his six largest donors — since those are the transactions that really keep him in business.<\/p>\n

If a group of thoughtful strangers looked at your income statement, without knowing what you do, what would they think you sell?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last month, Ozzy and Sharon Ozbourne announced a new strategy for their annual summer Ozzfest concert tour. Their response to rising production costs, rising ticket prices, and declining attendance is this: stop charging customers to come, and stop paying bands to play. Essentially, through their new ”free admission” policy, Ozzfest is refocusing what it sells […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1020","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-main","7":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1020","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1020"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1020\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1020"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1020"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1020"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}