Sharon Osbourne Attempts To Update The Concert Model To Version 2.0

“This will change everybody’s impression of the way touring in the summer in America should be.”
–Sharon Osbourne

Ozzfest Tour Organizer, Sharon Osbourne, has updated the concert industry to verison 2.0 by making Ozzfest 2007 free. That’s not a misprint. Ozzfest 2007 will be free to attend. Bands will be compensated by corporate sponsorship and merchandising opportunities. The Osbourne’s and tour production partner, Live Nation, will provide select sponsors with a unique opportunity to engage fans one-on-one utilizing one of music’s best known brands. In other words, they hope to sell Experience Marketing to a bunch well known icons, who think that displaying their logos in front of thousands of kids who are in the process of killing off their brain cells with every vehicle known to man, will be worth millions. Ah, no…


“We’re reaching the same point we did years ago when kids no longer wanted to pay for overpriced CDs,” compares Sharon. “As a result, they found alternative ways of getting music. That’s what’s happening with summer touring in this country, it’s out-pricing itself. We started this and we want to keep it and we want to make it bigger and bigger each year by getting bigger sponsors to be involved with the festival and underwriting the festival. That’s what it’s about.” Why not just reduce ticket prices and show us half the logos?

The 12th annual hard rock spectacular, Ozzfest 2007, will be a 25-date extravaganza launching July 7 in Los Angeles. The other “confirmed” Ozzfest cities are San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, Denver, Albuquerque, Phoenix, Dallas, San Antonio, Kansas City, St Louis, Chicago, Indianapolis, Columbus, Pittsburgh, New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Hartford, Charlotte, Atlanta, West Palm Beach, Nashville.

“For the last few years,” says Ms. Osbourne, Sharon, if you’ve seen the irresistable show, “ticket prices have steadily climbed as artists demand more and more money for summer tours. We certainly want everybody to make money, however we also want the kids to be able to afford to come out and have an incredible experience. If we continued with the traditional touring festival model, we would have no choice but to raise ticket prices again this year.” So…ah, why not just reduce ticket prices and show us half the logos?

To gain entry into the event, fans will go to ozzfest.com or livenation.com to find links that will direct them to special sponsor sites where tickets can be secured. More details regarding the process are forthcoming. More details?? You have no clue how your’e going to pull off this in a fair way do you? Treading through pages of a sponsor’s pitch until you find the “easter egg” ticket? Then, what if you have to suffer through the process and get denied? Pay someone for their ticket on eBay? How is this good for the bands? And more importantly: How is this scenario not going to screw over your average Ozzy fan who just wants to buy a ticket and go see that dusty old fart weez “Crazy Train” one last time?

As Ozzfest’s founder and namesake, Ozzy will make his “triumphant” (only in that the man is still standing?) return to the headlining position on this year’s mainstage. Audiences can expect the Prince of Darkness to unveil new songs from his forthcoming studio album, Ozzy’s first disc of new material since 2001.

While the rest of the in-progress bill is under wraps, Sharon points out, “we have bands committed, but we’re hoping that after today’s announcement we’ll have a whole influx of artists who want to be a part of something this ground breaking. We know there aren’t any major headlining acts that would tour all summer for nothing, but we’re confident we can turn some of the genre’s biggest bands on to what we’re doing and have them come out to play a date or two. If they’re in town and want the rush of performing in front of 20,000 frenzied kids, they’re more than welcome to join us. They can sell their t-shirts, CDs and whatever else they’ve got. They’re also welcome to book their own shows in local venues on the day of Ozzfest. I’m not stopping them. People have to be creative and think of alternatives.”

Since 1996, Ozzfest has been instrumental in igniting the careers of platinum-selling artists like System of a Down, Disturbed, Linkin Park, Incubus, Slipknot, Queens of the Stoneage and Godsmack. Along with supporting bands on the rise including Avenged Sevenfold, Mudvayne, Lamb of God, Killswitch Engage and Lacuna Coli, among others.

The Future: A huge gamble for The Osbournes that will result in a tremendous amount of foul play. Just the simple aspect of ticket distribution is going to be incredibly unfair to John Q. Public. A disaster…

More information on the festival’s new incarnation: Ozzfest 2007.

Author: FutureMusic

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