The intended sale of the Verizon (aka Deer Creek) Music Center is a much bigger story than the possible loss of one concert venue. It's part of a much bigger shift in music, which in turn is part of the digital revolution we're all going through. The Indianapolis Star explains:
Live Nation is caught between a nationwide trend toward shrinking concert promotion profits and the Noblesville area's increasing appeal for new commercial development.According to an Associated Press report in July 2005, North American concert attendance declined nearly 12 percent in the first half of 2005 despite the first drop in average ticket prices in a decade.And thanks to low ticket fees from smaller venues and bands' do-it-yourself attitudes, ticket sales at larger venues are continuing to plummet. Mark LaFay, owner of local concert promoter Kulture Entertainment, said large concert promoters are facing more competition than in the past.Musical acts once needed the clout of major labels to pull off anything larger than regional club tours. Now, because of Web sites such as Purevolume.com and MySpace.com, bands can book and promote their own national tours with little more than a broadband Internet connection and the will to send thousands of e-mails.
But look at 2006 through a different lens and you'll see another story, one that isn't about conflict or great men. It's a story about community and collaboration on a scale never seen before. It's about the cosmic compendium of knowledge Wikipedia and the million-channel people's network YouTube and the online metropolis MySpace. It's about the many wresting power from the few and helping one another for nothing and how that will not only change the world, but also change the way the world changes.
This will mean, among other things, that communities looking to infrastructure to spur economic development ought to rethink their assumptions. Places that seem to suit today's needs, such as a concert arena or baseball stadium, might be obsoleted by the changing world. I look at all the construction that's gone on recently -- the library, the convention center, our own new press building -- and all that's under consideration (school renovations, a downtown stadium and new hotel) and wonder if we'll all look back on it as ill-conceived, millions and millions wasted on buildings just when physical structures are becoming less important.
