Ozzfest’s Free Experiment: A Sign Of Summer Festivals To Come?

noah | April 6, 2007 11:45 am
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Today’s Newsday looks at the experiment that Ozzfest will conduct this summer, when it will make tickets to the show free and not pay bands, instead relying on corporate sponsorship to defray production costs:

No matter who ultimately plays at Ozzfest – nicknamed “Freefest” – the experiment will be interesting. Osbourne’s wife, Sharon, who helps run the festival, suggested that this might be the way of the future. Citing a new generation of music fans who seem to expect everything free, she predicted, “This will change everybody’s impression of the way touring in the summer in America should be.”

Is she right? The music industry certainly seems to be hurtling toward an all-free future. Between MySpace, blogs and illegal downloading, the reasons for paying for recorded music are quickly dwindling. Soon we might expect live music to be free. This could be a forehead-slapping moment: Hey, we’re already being bombarded with ads at tours sponsored by Vans, Nintendo and Honda Civic, so why are we paying for tickets, too?

We’ve talked about the unwieldiness of the “free music” future before, and really, with ticket prices going up, up, up, perhaps talking about defraying costs through everpresent sponsorship might be a better first step that may actually prop up ticket sales. Also, it’s important to note that “free” shows may result in concertgoers getting what they pay for–Ozzfest isn’t paying bands, and is instead plowing its sponsorship money back into the costs of putting the show itself on, which has kept bands that would be bigger draws (Korn, Judas Priest) off the bill. Yes, some people will go to Ozzfest because it’s Ozzfest, and that brand has built up a fair amount of goodwill; whether this model can be scaled to other artists’ ventures, though, is up in the air.

And why the rush to make so much music free, anyway? Sure, we’ve engaged in our fair share of shady downloading and guest-list wheedling, but the “all music should be free!” cries that have been growing steadily louder are making us wonder if there’s been a fundamental shift in the way people value music, or at least a little bit of self-loathing on the part of people charged with leading music-related chatter. We can understand a backlash against the Cribs/Fabulous Life Of… bling-flaunting–heck, we’re probably near its forefront–but what about allowing people to quit their day jobs and devote themselves to their craft on a fuller-time basis? Yes, the economics of the music business are currently shaking themselves out, and there’s a fair amount of carnage as a result, but saying “well, no one will pay for this, so let’s make everything free” is not only short-sighted, it sends out a message to consumers that music isn’t worth money–or, one could argue, time.

Is free Ozzfest a good value? [Newsday]