Taking Concerts Seriously

Rockonomics: Taking Concerts Seriously
By Christine Paluf

There’s a reason to go to an Ivy League school. You have a better chance of taking cooler classes, like one with Princeton University’s Alan Krueger, touted as “the world’s first and foremost professor of rockonomics.”

A report entitled, "Rockonomics: The Economics of Popular Music," compiled by Krueger and graduate student Marie Connolly details this new area of economic focus. Rockonomics is the study of the concert industry and its economic influences and effects.

The concert industry has become more businesslike over the years, according to Krueger. Sales of recorded music fell from 1999 to 2002, and continue to decline. This is attributed to free music downloads and CD burning. Artists used to price their concerts lower, because bigger audiences translated to album sales, according to Krueger. Today, that link doesn’t exist, and the majority of performers’ income comes from touring.

This was predicted in 2002 by David Bowie, who said to his fellow performers, “Music itself is going to become like running water or electricity. You’d better be prepared for doing a lot of touring, because that’s really the only unique situation that’s going to be left.”