It’s easy to hate high ticket prices at shows, especially with the economy descending even more fully into the crapper, and at this point, I don’t even spend a second browsing merch stands at shows. I enjoy sporting an ill-fitting t-shirt as much as anyone, but when the opportunity to promote across my chest a band I enjoyed for a month or so crossed the $30 barrier, I checked out. To her credit, however, critical fav Lucinda Williams is giving concertgoers a break: If you buy a ticket for one of her upcoming shows, you’ll receive a voucher for seven dollars off clothing items and five bucks off a disc at her merch counter. I imagine Lucinda is reeling a bit from the piracy age (although probably not quite as much as other artists out there), and this reasonable effort to create a win/win for her and the fan is laudable. [AZNightBuzz]
Lucinda Williams Might Be The Mother Teresa Of Touring
April 1st, 2009 // 3 Comments
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Maybe I’m missing something in the logic here, but: If you bought a ticket, you’re in the venue, where the merch counter is, right? So why bother issuing vouchers? Why not just knock those amounts off the price of merch?
The obvious answer is “to get a little extra money from people who don’t bother to use the voucher,” but still: weird. Far more useful would be a voucher to get a similar discount on her website or something, where you’ll be the morning after the show regretting not purchasing that one cool t-shirt. (Have done this many times.)
@dyfl: It’s only a deal if you know you’re getting a deal. Holding a coupon in your hand makes one more likely to check out the merch.
Perhaps there are more people who change their mind about the shirt overnight. Impulse shopping and all. And, if you were selling something, would you rather someone handed you cash right now; or told you they’d check out your website in the morning and “can I still have the discount, please”.
@K-Rex: I think the operative word is “bought”. Considering how many tickets go through brokers and God knows how many other people, and all the media and corporate freebies, this seems like a good way to reward those fans who actually buy their tickets the old-fashioned way.