Sick of Being Used

I'm sick and tired of being used when it comes to bands.

Now, I'm a rare fan. I'm loyal. I do pay for music and concert tickets. I don't download illegally. I read news posts and give free press right here.

I am fed up.

Last Friday, Motley Crue announced their winter tour - and fan club pre-sale all in one shot. Now, I think it's a little disrespectful for a band to say "We're touring - buy now!" but that's the least of my beefs.

Motley Crue has a pay-to-belong fanclub. I joined this before CrueFest for forty bucks. You might recall a couple months ago I said I wouldn't pay any more cash for fanclubs ever again. I stand by that rule. I'm turning that money into a donation to the local homeless shelter. The cash will be better used, the recipients more grateful.

Back to Motley Crue.

This time around, the fanclub pre-sale had a new wrinkle: a legacy membership.

What the hell is legacy? It's a sham, that's what! Apparently, fanclub members of more than a year were offered the chance to renew early or something. I guess I had this option too - meaning I'd have to pay *again* even though there are several months left on my membership!

What is the benefit of legacy?

So called "legacy" members got to buy their fanclub tickets at the designated time outlined on Motley Crue's official website. The other, still *paying* fanclub members had to wait an extra hour! The worst part of this is that barely anyone knew about the legacy option, so all it did was create anger and confusion among the band's most loyal fans.

The whole thing left me with a *very* bad taste in my mouth.

I have to pay money to travel to the show. Honestly, I'm going to the Rockford, Illinois stop to visit with Heather - not to see Motley again. In my mind, they've turned their backs on us. Maybe that's the wrong way of looking at things, but I can't help but feel a little hurt. I know Motley are extremely rich now. Good for them. Only problem is, it's people like us that made them rich in the first place. Considering they were all dirt poor - they should think twice about screwing over fans - especially in this terrible economy. Will fans have to renew a membership for each tour? We already know there will be CrueFest 2. So help me if Motley thinks they'll be able to retain every fanclub member and get those same people to add an extra forty bucks again, just a handful of months after already renewing out of turn.

Now, this is important: the point here is not that I'm annoyed I had to wait an extra hour to get tickets. Quite frankly, I could care less. I have decent seats and I knew there was no way in hell the show was going to sell out. The point is that bands of a certain stature, be they Motley or Kiss or any of that ilk need to come to grips with the fact that literally raping your best customers will only bite you in the ass in the long run. Again, if it wasn't for Heather, I wouldn't have given Motley any money for the tickets, either. I am just sick and tired of being used and abused by just about *everyone* when it comes to my pocketbook. At some point, Motley, Aerosmith, Kiss, Poison...won't be able to tour anymore. Yes, that day will come. What then of the paid fanclub memberships I ask? What then!?!

Comments

[Rob Rockitt, HardRockHideout.com]

Amen! I joined the AC/DC fan club in hopes of getting better seats. It did nothing for me at all. I got a refund for my fanclub membership. Motley and AC/DC are two of the bands that could lure me into doing something this stupid. I guess the bands arent making any money off of their CD's with all of the illegal downloaders. They are finding new ways to sock it to us.

[don]

i liken these fan clubs memberships to the NFL's personal seat license. that's where not only do you pay a ridiculous amount for your season tickets, you then have to pay for a personal liscense for those seats. a license to sit in the seats that you paid for. how does this make any kind of sense? i also refuse to join these fan clubs even with the promise of pre-sales. it's a scam because somehow the best seats still get bought by the ticket brokers. funny how that happens huh? somehow they get the tickets they shouldn't be able to get. like you said allyson, that money can be spent for better purposes than lining a bands pockets and getting nothing in return.

[Todd]

I have completely different views on situations like these compared to most people.

Sure, the fan club idea is basically stealing $40 from us. But, hell, most bought at least two tickets, if not, four. So, if the tickets were priced $10 higher would we be upset? At least this way, the band is getting the money, not the building or promoter.

The facts, at least, in Motley's case, is that they sold 236,000 copies of SOLA (most recent soundscan number). That's a horrible number. It's not there fault, that we, the consumers, can blatantly steal their product. Their product. The only product that defines them. Their chief revenue generator. We, as a society, can just take that, for nothing. It's easy.

How else can they make money? Touring, merchandise, fan clubs etc...So, they have to grab as much as they can. It's just business.

I never hold success against people. If Motley's rich, great. They've given me a lot. And in their case, they paid a lot in their personal life for my happiness that they gave through music, concerts etc...I'm glad their rich.

I've never felt cheated, ripped off, short changed, ever, after leaving a Motley Crue show. In fact, during the Carnival of Sins Tour, I felt like I got the best concert value ever. And I paid $150 for my 6th row seat.

Bands must come up with ways to make money. Considering we can blatantly steal there product and they are defenseless against us, they need to find other revenue streams. McDonald's puts a shot of flavoring in their coffee and charges you $2.00 extra for a $.20 shot. Chevy puts a $200 set of Bose speakers in their cars and charges us $800.

Successful, enduring companies (bands) will find ways to make money. When the demand goes away, people will stop buying. But, the Crue put on a great live show, which is why we all ponyed up the $40 to make sure we a great seat for a rockin' party that is like no other.

$40 less rich, but happy as hell for my great tickets in February!

[Lucifer]

Thats why I never ever will join a fanclub.
Plus I never have any money.
And no good bands ever come to England...

Although im seeing Airbourne saturday.
But no good GLAM bands.

[MotleyCrue666]

oh Well Its Motley Crue!

[Fitz]

Its typical Motley Crue business, They are cashing in any way possibel since they are in the twilight of their career. lets face it they'll never have another Dr. Feelgood so they will sell out any way possible to make $$$. Dont get me wrong the Crue are one of my favorite bands but I just laugh it off cause they can get away with it. They'll be the ones retiring on a beach laughing all the way to the bank.

[mom2ross]

I agree with you (again), Allyson. The AC/DC shows were an excellent example of this for me. You HAD to be in their fan club to get the presale password, and the tickets were outrageous. $95 face value for the guy in the front row AND someone in the nosebleed section, behind the stage!? Not fair at all. All I kept thinking was "You're AC - freakin' - DC, how much money do you NEED!?!?!?!?"

Everyone ripped (rips) Metallica for "selling out". I got my presale password for their shows simple by offering up my email address. The seats had different pricing levels and if I bought early, I got a free copy of "Death Magenetic" and a download of the show I would be attending. (Alas, no one would go with me, but that's besides the point.)

On a lighter note, have fun up here in February, Rockford is only about an hour West of me.

[gerry g]

similar situation: I questioned the morality of a certain British rock singer (who sang "Missing You" and "Change") who charged 50 dollars to be a "member" of his web site, then soon closed the site to instead use myspace - and did NOT refund anyone. Shame.

[kari]

I've been a SIN member for a few years now and MOTLEY has ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS taken care of their fanclub. I blame the damn band for selling out with their million dollar deal with Live Nation. yeah sure, Motley is laughing all the way to the band, but this Live Nation deal has ousted people in the Motley camp that have been very loyal to working for that band for years and years and now the fans are getting f'd too. I'll NEVER EVER renew my membership ever again. That Legacy member b.s. they pulled was nothing but B.S. the amount they are charging fanclub members for the "special" packages is b.s. too. Just two years ago, I could pay $200 through the fanclub and get FRONT ROW. that's no longer the case my friend. Motley has to put their own fanclub in seats on the SIDE of the stage in the regular club level seats. WTF? The fact that they announced dates and put them up on sale w/in hours of posting dates was utter and complete disrespect to the fans as well. We all work hard and choose to spend our money on tickets to see this band and then they want to give us NO TIME to figure out what cities we want to go to and talk with our other motley fans to see what shows they want to go to and then on top of that put a 4 ticket cap on fanclub tickets. I'm lucky the routing is working out well for me but this b.s. fanclub presale that went down last friday left me wanting to say F MOTLEY!

[arubalou]

hello i agree with you 100%, this is just greed on the part of the band. finacially they don't need the $$$ but as the saying goes "theres a sucker born every minute"!!!

[lajustice77]

I agree with you Allyson but I think you shouldn't have gave them any of your cash for this lame tour with Hinder! I would just drive to Rockford to visit your friend, at least she won't rob you!

[don]

todd, the flaw in your theory is that sola sold so poorly because everyone "could" download it for free and poor motley crue lost sales. perhaps it sold so poorly because people just didn't like it. being able to download and actualy downloading are 2 different things. unfortunately there is no way to determine how many copies were downloaded to show how much of an effect it had on sales.

[Todd]

Don, you very well could be correct that the product (liked or disliked) represents the sales of the record.

But, in Motley's case, the "success" (depending upon your definition of success) of Cruefest is the biggest factor in my argument.

Now given, they carried 4 other bands on the tour with them. I'm sure the opening acts put some asses in the seats, no argument from me there. But, I will also argue that Motley Crue sold "most" of the tickets.

The tour was seen by over 613,000 people, grossing over 16 million dollars. It was only 40+ dates.

I just have a hard time thinking that over a half million were willing to drop $50-$100 per concert ticket, but only 230,000 were willing to drop $15.

I think that the impact of illegal downloading really hurt the Crue in sales, for whatever reason.

[don]

a lot of people will go see motley crue even if their latest cd sucks (i happen to think it does suck but i'm in a minority on this board). i mean look how vince "sings" nowadays, people complain endlessly about this, yet all those people still went to see them. i can't explain it myself.