If you were thinking of catching a show at your favorite amphitheatre this summer, the friendly folks at Live Nation have some good news for you: no service fees.
You read that right. Live Nation, which admittedly has taken a lot of heat over the past few months for service charges, is trying out a new promotion that ditches those fees for lawn seats at U.S. amphitheatres.
There’s just one catch: the fee-free tickets are only available on Wednesdays and only for select shows.
The first fee-free day begins June 3 at 12:01 a.m. in every local time zone and runs for 24 hours.
Included in the initial promotion are 43 Live Nation venues featuring shows by artists including Coldplay, Dave Matthews Band, Depeche Mode, No Doubt, Nine Inch Nails and Jane’s Addiction, Phish, Toby Keith, New Kids on the Block, George Strait, Def Leppard with Poison and Cheap Trick, the Vans Warped Tour and many others.
Subsequent fee-free Wednesdays will feature a smaller selection of venues and artists.
So does this mean Live Nation has finally grown a conscience? Yes and no.
“We know people hate fees,” Jason Garner, Live Nation’s chief executive of global music, told Associated Press. “We just want to have one day to say to fans, ‘We’ve heard you loud and clear and appreciate your support. Escape and enjoy a great show.’”
Of course there is another reason for this fee-holiday: Live Nation hates empty seats as much as fans hate fees. The company acknowledges about 40 percent of all seats wind up empty. That means for a 20,000-capacity shed, more than half of the 13,000 lawn tickets go unsold.
Whatever the motive though, this is pretty much a win-win situation that’s definitely worth checking out. Kudos to LN for finally making a smart PR move.