Clear Channel Domination

[Bags]

I knew they controlled a lot, but 70% of all live events...holy mother.  It's a long article, so I'm only posting the top couple of paragraphs, but it's really interesting...
 
 Inside Clear Channel
 Rolling Stone magazine online
 
 How the company's domination has made the airwaves blander and tickets pricier
 
 Scan the radio dial in Detroit, and you'll likely land on a station that's owned by Clear Channel Communications. Seven of the city's most popular stations belong to the company, including WJLB 97.9 (an R&B station that once pushed Parliament-Funkadelic to national prominence), a Top Forty station, a classic-rock station and two adult-contemporary options. Clear Channel also owns two AM talk stations in Detroit, which broadcast Pistons games and conservative talk-show host Glenn Beck, who MC'd the "Rallies for America" that drummed up support for attacking Iraq.
 
 Clear Channel also has a near lock on Detroit's concert business. The company owns two massive amphitheaters, a pair of 1,000- to 1,400-person clubs and a 2,800-seat theater, and it books the Palace of Auburn Hills, a 15,000-seat arena. During the week of July 26th, the company controlled Motor City concerts by the Dead, Hilary Duff, Midtown, Hanson, Huey Lewis and the News, Prince and D12.
 
 It's not just Detroit, either. Clear Channel controls roughly 1,200 radio stations and about seventy percent of all live events that are promoted in the United States. The company also is reportedly considering the launch or purchase of a record label.

[Bags]

The experience of going to a concert has gotten more expensive, too. In 1999, the average concert ticket cost $36.56; four years later, the price skyrocketed to $50.35, an increase of thirty-eight percent. And that's only part of the total. Clear Channel's extra fees have outpaced even ticket prices. When Pearl Jam's Jeff Ament and Stone Gossard testified in Congress against Ticketmaster in 1994, the battle centered on a $3.50 service charge. Today, Clear Channel regularly charges more than twice that. For the May 27th Cypress Hill show at Detroit's 1,400-seat Clutch Cargo club, tickets cost $30, but there's also a $7.20 "convenience charge" and a 75-cent facility fee.

[jkeisenh]

Thanks for the great article, Bags.
 
 I make ad buys at work and it's amazing what these guys own.  They own bus shelter ads, billboards, radio stations, subway ads, and more.  It's disturbing.  When we want to place a "controversial" ad, if ClearChannel doesn't like it, where can we go with it?  Options are getting fewer, since radio and display ads are the two cheapest forms out there.  (TV is really expensive.)

[Bags]

It's quite scary, Chimbly.  You go to Nissan, and Clear Channel controls EVERY aspect of that show, down to the brands of soda you drink and what ads you see.  It's all enmeshed in such a huge corporate beast....

[jkeisenh]

reminds me of the Josie and the Pussycats movie.  I love that movie-- partly thanks to the Letters to Cleo soundtrack.  Mostly, though, because of the strong anti-corporate yet mockingly overdone corporate crap.
 
 That was the movie that made me start to actively notice product placements... and hate them.

[bearman🐻]

ARGH!!!!!!!!! This article is fucking INFURIATING.

[flawd101]

we can always hope one of their employees come out and do something very stupid and clearchannel takes a crippling blow.

[xcanuck]

If the RS article on CC pisses you off, you should read Jake Slichter's new book "So You Wanna Be A Rock and Roll Star: How I Machinegunned A Roomfull of Record Executives and Other True Tale's From A Drummer's Life".
 
 Slichter used to be the drummer for Semisonic. Regardless of what you think of the band, his story about the inside workings of the music indsutry is eyeopening and scary.
 
 Musicians get so badly screwed by the labels. Payola is alive and well. Record contracts are nothing more than indentured servitude. And we, the record buying public, get fed nothing but crap.

[sonickteam2]

Originally posted by xcanuck:
 
 Musicians get so badly screwed by the labels. Payola is alive and well. Record contracts are nothing more than indentured servitude. And we, the record buying public, get fed nothing but crap.

thats why you be picky on what CDs you buy, and spend more of your money going out to shows (that arent at Nissan!)

[xcanuck]

That's also why you only buy your CDs at the shows (if possible). When you buy a CD from a store, the band sees somewhere between 75 cents to a dollar. When you buy a CD at a show, all $10 (or whatever) go to the band.

[da'niceguys]

i just come across this thread, although i read the article online earlier this week.
 It has to be one the the must frustating things about my music. I have worked for Clear Channel and seen how it is from the inside.
 I entered into the whole thing with the idea of being able to work my way up in order to " Make a Change from Within".  No changes can be made because the organization itself is so compartmentalized that I could be the top of the Radio conglomerate and still not be able to make any changes cuz the Hayes (or is it Mayes) family wouldn't let it happen.
 the only thing i will ever defend C.C. for is the Payola charge. They do not buy airtime. But they do trade it for Radio station Concerts, Station T-Shirts, Prizes, Meals, etc... but it is not a Cash for Spins set-up as some people still believe.
 My final sound off on good old C.C. is when the Iraq war started and an email was sent across the company saying that the on air talent was not allowed to voice there opinion on the war but that we support it as a company. I almost laughed at the contradiction with the memo.
 Ok one more sound off, in the wake of the FCC fines. All on air talent had to sign a waiver saying that they would not talk bad about the company or else.
 I know iM late to get into this discussion and probably know one will ever read it but I hope that I can give some inside insight into it.

[Bags]

Originally posted by xcanuck:
  That's also why you only buy your CDs at the shows (if possible). When you buy a CD from a store, the band sees somewhere between 75 cents to a dollar. When you buy a CD at a show, all $10 (or whatever) go to the band.

I buy CDs at shows very often, but I didn't realize it was that big a difference?!  Only snag is when I want to get a CD of the band's before I see them play, which happens once in a while.  I'll also pretty often buy the CD at the show if I like the band and have a burned copy someone gave me...[say, like Burning Brides]  

[chaz]

Originally posted by da'niceguys:
   They do not buy airtime.  

Of course they don't...why would a company who owns 50 trillion radio and tv stations ever need to buy airtime?  They already own the airtime!

[da'niceguys]

i should clarify they (record labels, not Clear channel) do not buy airtime.  Of course clear channel doesn't buy somethign from itself

[vansmack]

Originally posted by da'niceguys:
    Of course clear channel doesn't buy somethign from itself

No, but it can take advantage of its market position to dictate what gets played, which is a concern as they try to get into the record label business.  It wouldn't be "Payola" as we have known in the past, as much as it would be exclusion.