Bundling Bad For Business?

Dan Steinbergin D.C. told The Real he’s not against offering ticket buyers the album at checkout but “it needs to be an option for the fan and never forced on them.”

Indie promoter Danny Zelisko compared album bundling with VIP meet and greets, where artists collect big bucks for pre-concert events without sharing any of the upside.

“It’s forced down our throats without any participation,” he said. “This whole issue would be better received by promoters if they were included as part of the sales.”

Brian Penix with NS2 said packaging was a symptom of “record companies not doing their jobs.”

“The big con is in most cases they only give a download to every ticket purchaser but not for every ticket sold. If a consumer bought two tickets to a show, they only get one download,” he said. “I wouldn’t have as much of an issue with it if every consumer who walked through the door was handed an actual album – 

No, says a growing chorus of indie promoters, who are starting to push back on the bundling of digital albums into ticket sales by managers and labels, arguing it’s driving up the cost of concerts and forcing fans to pay for something they don’t necessarily want.  

Dan Steinberg did that once. That is adding to the overall fan experience, which is what we as promoters are selling.”