Garth Brooks: Safety and Success in Numbers

Now before we answer that question, I'll share a disturbing fact; I actually owned eight Garth Brooks albums by 1997. How and why? Well, to be honest, I got the first six from the BMG Music Club for pennies and I grabbed the others because they were affordably priced when they came out. Garth Brooks was never my favorite artist by a long shot, but I admired him and I liked the fact that I was able to get his entire catalog for an affordable price. As a result, I listened to these albums and discovered some inspiring and genuinely fun songs that owed more to classic rock than country music. Part of his behemoth success had to do with press, clever marketing and rabid support of country radio�but I believe the crucial factor that kept people coming back time and time again was due to his concert performances. I never would have bothered with Brooks if not for being able to afford these albums and for stories I heard about his concerts. So many acts are livid with the advent of downloading and I would be lying to you if I said it didn't affect record sales, but I think more of it has to do with the average music consumer retaliating against the artist and the music industry. Once you hit a certain ticket plateau ($100), fans begin to feel disgruntled and feel that it is their right to own your album, no matter how it comes into their possession since they are unloading an exorbitant amount on concert tickets, parking and Ticketmaster service fee's. Let's take Aerosmith for example, last fall their released their sixth �Greatest Hits' album with two new songs on it. I had a friend who paid $165 to see the Aerosmith/Motley Crue package last year and after the show, he felt ripped off and wasn't about to pay another $15 to two new songs. Neither did I. I'd also like to point out, that besides six �Hits' records, Aerosmith has two box sets and five live albums. I have many of these releases, but balked at buying the last one because I felt like the band was taking advantage of me�and if I had paid $165 to see Aerosmith play thirteen-songs, I probably would have felt like they owed me those two-songs.

In the fall of 1997, ticket prices were beginning to really push the boundaries with both U2 and the Rolling Stones charging upwards of $70 for stadium shows (which seemed wildly inappropriate at the time) while acts like John Mellencamp were charging over $100 for theater shows. It was insane and out of control�but then there was Garth Brooks. I bought a ticket to his record breaking eight-night run in Chicago and it cost me $22 with service charges. Tickets were $18.50 and they had a $3.50 convenience fee added to them. Now, this sounds like the type of story my parents would tell me about a top tier artist from the late 1970's or early 1980's instead of merely ten years ago. The funny thing is that I remember waiting in line for tickets and some fans were pissed because just a few years' earlier tickets had only been $17.50. In the Billboard news item that ran last week, there is a staggering fact that should not be taken lightly. Between 1996 and 1998, Garth performed to 5.5 million people with a total ticket income of $105 million.

Let me repeat that�5.5 million people paid to see him in concert.

Now, let's do some really simplistic math. Let's say that every person who saw him in concert bought two of his albums and his royalty rate was $1 an album, which would mean $11 million in profitable record sales. Let's say every person bought a concert T-shirt and his profit margin was $3. That would be $16.5 million profit. I'm going on the low end here, because the reality is that fans felt they were getting a deal on the ticket, so they splurged on the albums and merchandise. Why in God's name don't more artists follow this model? I'll tell you why, it isn't good business sense for the promoters and handlers. Bands want big guarantee's these days and as a result, they're getting the money, even if the promoter takes a bath, but sadly they are losing fans that will probably never come back. If these bands were in the restaurant business, they would go bankrupt. If Garth Brooks ventured out on a tour where the prices were three times higher than they were ten-years ago, it would still sell-out in every market because fans would feel an obligation because he has always taken care of his fans. Ten years ago, if a fan bought two-cd's at $15 a piece, a shirt at $25 and a concert ticket at $25, the total cost would be $80. Double that price and you still can't afford to see Aerosmith in concert today (Based on tickets, service charges and the average parking fee).

I saw Garth Brooks once in the fall of 1997 and it was a rowdy three-hour marathon that had the crowd worked into a crazy riotous frenzy. Six months after these shows, Garth would release a six-disc box set priced at $30 that would sell out, even though the box only contained six new songs. Why did people feel the need to support this artist and even re-buy albums they previously owned? It's simple, Garth understood his audience and as a result he became to most savvy businessman in the music business. He made sure his T-shirts would priced affordably (usually around $18) and more so made sure that they were made with top-tier material so they wouldn't fade after one washing. Even though he had sold gazillions of records, people looked at Garth and felt like they could relate to him and because he had taken care of them, they felt the need to return to favor.

For Garth Brooks, it was never about the money, it had more to do with ego than anything else. At one point he passed Billy Joel in total albums sold to become to best selling male album artist in the history of the United States. The funny thing was that Billy Joel didn't even know he had that title until a press release was released by Garth's people. Garth Brooks loves numbers and facts and he'll do anything to break records. He may be an egomaniac, (and he may not be, I don't know him personally) but I can tell you this, he treated his fans right. Ten years after I saw him in concert, I don't listen to his albums all that much, I haven't bought anything new by him since his disappointing live album in 1998 and I haven't really thought about him all that much�but I still remember the fact that is only cost me $22 to see him in concert. Most venues charge more than this for parking these days. If Garth came back around, I'd probably go and see him, not because I'm dying to see him again, but because I know I'll get my money's worth and won't feel like I was taken advantage afterwards. Who knows, if the show impresses me enough, I may even be tempted to go out and buy a few albums afterwards. Why? Because the power of a live performance can inspire you unlike anything else; Radio, TV, MTV, VH-1, CMT, the internet all pale in comparison and nothing is going to pull in lifelong fans like a two-plus hour advertisement of your own music. This is something every artist today is forgetting. Tours in the past were all about promoting your latest album�now the albums promote the tours and since tickets are so expensive, fans don't feel the need or desire to buy the latest album.

Maybe�just maybe if more bands approached their ticket pricing and record sales with the same creative and financial outlook as Garth Brooks, then they would be selling more records? Aerosmith hasn't had a major hit in quite some time and Bon Jovi could launch a nationwide stadium tour that they could largely sell-out, but not at the prices they are charging. Let's say Bon Jovi toured stadiums and had prices ranging from $20 to $95, with the majority of tickets in the $50 range, they would probably be able to play at least fifteen to twenty markets with a potential audience of 800,000 people. I guarantee you, these people are going to be more likely to buy a new album and pay to see multiple shows from seeing a powerful live performance than spending five-minutes on �The View'. If you ever talk to a die-hard fan of an act and you ask them how they got into the band, quite often you hear them tell you a tale about how a friend dragged them to the concert and they wound up becoming a bigger fan than the person who dragged them. You almost never hear them say, "I saw them on �The View' and went out and bought their entire catalog".

Between 1996 and 1998 Garth Brooks performed to 5.5 million fans in American. This is a staggering amount of people by anyone's measure. Most stadium bands (the Rolling Stones, Bon Jovi, Madonna, Springsteen, Aerosmith, etc.) go on a tour around the world and they play to approximately 3 million people, but if you look at the numbers, this is 2.5 million fewer than Garth played to�and that is 2.5 million fewer people who are likely to buy your product and spread the word. Who knows, I may be wrong, but the way I look at it, the more people you play to, the more chances you have pulling them in and having them feel loyal and buy your product. There is safety and success in numbers. I don't know about you but that sounds like smart business to me.

Anthony Kuzminski can be found at The Screen Door

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