Just received an email from a band I follow, alerting me to new tour dates. Fantastic! A great way to keep up with where they are, without having to remember to go check their website every week or so. But part of the email touted the benefits of purchasing VIP tickets, which entitles the fan to ‘hang with the band’ prior to the show and have one item autographed.
I’ve seen many of these ‘deals’ before of course – nothing new. But it got me thinking – as did another email from a different band the other day.. trying to convince me to spend $40 bucks to join the band’s fan club.
Do fans really still pay for this sort of stuff? Would you pay? And do the bands’ get the money from this or does it go straight into the pockets of the label and promoters? And do the bands even like doing meet/greets? Do they even have a say in how much their fans get nailed for these ‘exclusives’? Do they even care? Or do they let ‘their people’ handle it all?
Most fan clubs run about $35-$50 and in return the fan usually gets a band tee, perhaps and EP or single song download, or a ‘laminate’ (whatever the hell that is – yes I know, just being sarcastic thanks) and often they’ll toss in ‘pre-sale ticket codes when available’. Oh.. and ‘access to exclusive content including videos, audio and pictures.’ Right. Aren’t they forgetting that most fans take pics and vid at the shows, and share via Youtube (and in many cases do a better job than the ‘exclusive’ content provider). And unless the band is one of the Top 10 or a Classic band – most band t-shirts nowadays leave much to be desired (esp when the band is missing a member due to that member not being ‘official’)
The other odd thing about fan clubs is the presale codes. Most promoters now are desperate to get enough bodies in the venues – people are tapped out and are starting to refuse to pay overinflated ticket prices. So promoters are giving away more and more tickets to radio stations and such, for giveaway contests. The radio stations also add their own presale codes for listeners who join the station’s ‘club’. A smart fan can sign up for every radio station in their city and have a good chance of a presale code for free.
And what about fan forums? Paying to talk to other fans in an exclusive message board? Most message boards fizzle out quickly. You can only talk about one band or artist for so long before it becomes boring. Besides, most bands/artists are on Facebook and Twitter and many do their own posts/tweets and many engage the fans from those sources – not many actually joined their own message board/fan forum.
So what about meet/greets? I’ve done a few but have never paid for one; they’ve been done as part of my freelance writing. From what I’ve seen – most bands are like deer in the headlights at meet/greets and so they should be. Being trotted into a room full of strangers all ogling you and wanting something from you must be difficult. Most are gracious and try to put the fan at ease, make them feel appreciated and special in the 30 seconds to 2 minutes that they are limited to with each fan. As I said, I wonder if the meet/greets are by choice or ‘part of the job’ from mgmt and I wonder how much they benefit from it, if at all. Much more relaxed and enjoyable to meet the band after the show at the merch table!
So yes, I’d be interested to know what your thoughts are. Would you pay? Have you joined a fan club and if so, who’s and why? If not why not? If yes – did you renew the membership when it came due or did you drop it?
As for me, I joined U2’s fanclub one year – simply to be able to get a ticket without having to buy it from a scalper – shut out in the 80’s, shut out in the 90’s too, I decided it was worth the extra cash just to get a ticket for once. Did I renew? Nope.. but when and if U2 come back to town, I will probably consider this option once again.
~Aron Madin
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