We find it very difficult to understand why WMG acquired Bulldog. How does selling (effectively) $3,000 concert tix help Warner Music sell CDs and digital downloads (not a label 360 deal, as it involved artists with nothing to do with WMG)? While it may be fun for WMG management to attend ultra-luxurious parties with their celebrity friends, it is unclear why WMG and their investors had to own and therefore foot the bill (losses) for all these events? WMG needs to be slashing costs and investing in its A&R efforts, not "partying" with the Hamptons' crowd on the company's bill, as if the recorded music biz was vibrant.

These are all excellent questions. (And the allegation, further down, that no one except the most desperate actually paid the $15k to get in, raises even more.) Anyone want to see if Lyor Cohen is back from his helicopter ride so he can give us an answer? We'll wait.

I Know What WMG Did Last Summer: "Party Like it's 1999″ [Pali Research, reg. req.; via Silicon Alley Insider]
[Photo: Getty Images]

With tickets barely moving, Meli - tail between his legs - is now offering a "limited" number of tickets to the final three shows of his series, called the Hampton Social.

"It's not too late, you can still attend the 2007 Hampton Social," he wrote in an e-mail to potential subscribers. "If you have not purchased your tickets, now is the time."

Word around the Hamptons is that Meli has been giving away lots of free tickets, to make it appear that his concerts are popular.

Au contraire! roared Fox News mouthpiece Roger Friedman, who's been serving as a sort of Personality Parade for these concerts all summer when he hasn't been offering up Clive Davis' side of the Kelly Clarkson saga. In a piece that unfortunately referred to Joel as a hometown boy for "the east end of Long Island"—ahem—Friedman gave a different take on the night's gate:

Show insiders tell me that offering the whole thing up front as a $30,000-a-couple series was too much even for the Hamptons. Sales were slow. But now, individual shows are being sold, and Joel's was so hot that 200 more seats than the 1,000 allotted for where actually sold.

"We had 1,200 people," said a source. Another source says that Joel was paid $2 million for the night.

Of course, among those "1,200 people" were a lot of boldface names—the type who live on the largesse of places like the Polaroid Beach House. (When David Blaine is "walking around doing card tricks," you know that you're living in some province of Swagland.) So yeah, Meli probably took a total bath on this, finance-wise, although his baby sure did rack up a lot of blog hits over the weekend. Who wants to put money on there being a sequel to this fiasco next year—only with higher ticket prices and more sponsors, so the celebs can keep their weekend calendars filled and Meli can look like he's saving face?

HAMPTONS' CONCERT TIX NIXED [NYP]
Fox411 [foxnews.com]
[Photo: Getty Images]

Google Blog Search: "dave matthews" hamptons [Google Blog Search]

"You will be bidding on packages of 2 tickets, with a maximum allowance of 4 tickets (2 packages) per bidder. We are using the lowest high bid method for this auction. Send an email with the highest price bid you will pay for 2 tickets. Remember that the top 100 bidders are obligated to buy either at their bid prices or lower, as the purchase price will be determined by the lowest of the top 100 bids. For example, if the prices of the top 100 bids range from $400 to $1,000 for 2 tickets, each of the 100 top bidders will pay only $400 for their 2 tickets."

Or $200 a ticket. And that's 200 tickets out of the 1,000 that are allegedly being sold—ouch. On the bright side, my hopes that the Hicksville High School alumni association has an inside line on the Billy Joel show just shot up by about three or four notches.

Social Concert Series: Dave Matthews Tickets For Free (Almost) [The Beach]

Greetings from the Warehouse:

We are pleased to invite you to join Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds for a once-in-a-lifetime concert experience this Saturday evening, July 28 in East Hampton, NY. As many of you may have heard, Dave and Tim are performing a semi-private benefit for the Ross School in East Hampton. We have just been offered a limited number of specially priced tickets for the benefit concert which we are offering to Warehouse members that have purchased Randall's Island VIP tickets. The all-inclusive ticket includes luxurious seating, world class food featuring the BBQ stylings of executive chef Adam Perry Lang, a top shelf open bar, plus pre and post show entertainment. The tickets are extremely limited and will be sold first come-first serve at $250 per ticket/$500 per pair. All proceeds from this special ticket sale will benefit charity with half of the proceeds to benefit Dave Matthews' Horton Foundation and the other half to benefit Ross School. Dave and Tim tickets may be purchased by calling (800) 803-6644 and mentioning the access code "Trax". For more information about the concert, please visit www.discoversocial.com

What, is Christie Brinkley not that big of a Dave fan or something? We figured she'd skip the show by her ex-husband, but really, who knew that people weren't going to lay out the $15,000 for all five shows—except, uh, everybody? Anyway, we can't wait to see what this guy has to say about the whole thing, and how many product-placementy bits he's going to try and stick into his sneery comment.

More Social@Ross [Lefsetz Letter]
Earlier: The $15,000 Concert Series Will Let You See Prince For A Steep, Steep Price