The following is an excerpt from a research assignment on the state of live music as it applied to The National Theater, in Richmond, Virginia.
The live music business is healthy. According to the Chicago Tribune revenues for live venues are up 7.8 percent, despite ticket sales dropping a slight 3 percent. This is attributable to rising ticket prices; they’ve doubled in the last ten years (currently averaging $67 per ticket). Considering the current economic climate, the fact that revenues are up is a good sign for the future.
According to Scott Gelman, VP of Live Nation (which is a corporate spinoff of radio giant Clear Channel), the US’s largest concert promoter, “We’re an escape for people in tough economic times.”
Live Nation promotes mostly large scale musicians — arena fillers like Madonna, Phish, Bruce Springsteen, and The Eagles, many of whom can charge upwards of $250 per ticket. If an item with that kind of price tag is selling well in a depression, it says a lot about how much our audience values their favorite musicians.
It’s a qualified success, however. According to Billboard, the concert industry really took a hit in 2007, when overall concert attendance dropped about twenty percent. This caused a drop in the absolute show count. This year overall attendance is still down 2.1 percent, but on a show by show basis attendance is up 6.3 percent, and box office sales up 18%. In plain English: there are less shows on the whole, but each show is making more money.
Recently Neil Young sold only half of his tickets at the Allstate Arena, though Gelman blames this on it being a chair-free, general admission show. People in their 50’s don’t want to stand through a four hour concert. This leads me to The National, which courts a similar demographic as artists like Neil Young, but with a much smaller venue, much smaller bands, and about 300 first-come-first-serve general admission seats (out of a full capacity of 1500).
The National is only about a year old, opening roughly 6 months after the similarly sized and now defunct Toad’s Place. Before Toad’s there was no venue in Richmond to accommodate a mid-level, 1500 person concert. The Richmond Colliseum, which caters to big acts like Springsteen, is frequently skipped on national tours due to the venues poor condition. You also had much smaller venues like Alley Katz, The Canal Club, and the constantly changing Twisters/929/Nanci Raygun (currently Bagel Czar). These venues hold smaller acts than the National, usually low level national tours or local bands, and often have a lot of niche acts for a younger crowd (i.e. a lot hardcore).
With The National, Richmond finally has a much needed middle ground. It opens the city up to critically well regarded bands that aren’t popular enough to be on Clearchannel radio, but are too big to play for only 300 people.
Now that Toad’s is gone, The National has no immediate competition as far as venues go. The related Innsbrook is closest, but it’s significantly larger, outdoors, and has a distinct musical identity, where The National draws from a larger range of artists. That’s not to say that there isn’t plenty of other competition for Richmonders’ time and money.
Technical and Otherwise 