Home Music Lane

It's all about the music, dude! Sit down, relax and listen to some tunes.

RE: Avery Fisher Hall

I wouldn't be too hard on the board -- it's actually good that they realize that you're leaving money on the table when demand outstrips the number of seats.

The real problem is that we build these new halls and arts center and there is zero plan of what to do with the nights when the anchor resident company is not using the facility. As a result, the majority of nights are dark. It would be financially feasible to build much smaller and acoustically superior halls -- 1,700 to 2,000 seats -- if there were significantly fewer darks night.

Another alternative -- which would require a huge leap of faith -- is getting rid of the subscription system and adopting dynamic pricing for all concerts. With a 2,500 seat hall you're not going to sell out every concert -- you'll be lucky to consistently break 85% to 90%. A 1,800 hall with dynamic pricing could earn as much as as a 2,500 seat hall with popular shows. For example, when an orchestra plays something like Beethoven's 5th or 9th, or Mahler's 2nd, demand for tickets is very high. You get a lot of people who rarely go to the orchestra, but recognize that these are special pieces of music and are willing to pay top dollar. As the pace of sales increases, the price of the tickets in the house should rise.

While this Broadway pricing model might be to for-profit for some people, it's really silly that orchestra's don't maximize revenue from profitable concerts to help supplement ones where attendance is going to be soft.


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