From overpriced tickets to epic stadium shows, ARIA-Spotify backlash and bluegrass breakthroughs — this week in live music is wild. Music guru David Kowalski has the latest.
LiveNation CEO says concert tickets are undervalued
In the latest from the CEO-has-no-concept-of-reality files, the CEO of U.S. Concert promoter Live Nation, Michael Rapino, has argued that concert tickets are undervalued and that they are in demand (potentially justifying a higher price tag). He argues the average ticket price for a top 100 concert draw is US$72 (AU$109) and to “try and get into the Lakers for that price”.
Well, Mr Rapino, I did just that, and the October 3 pre-season game of the Lakers vs the Phoenix Suns, the starting ticket price starts at US$67 (AU$101) and goes up to over US$400 (AU$606) depending on seat position. Mind you, for the first game of the regular season on October 21, the tickets start at US$238 (AU$360) and head skywards from there.
Rapino did get one thing right, and that is that the costs for staging a concert have gone through the roof lately. Venue hire is crazy and audiences are expecting an audiovisual spectacular these days. This means the average price is nowhere near $100. They can’t be, because the logistics of presenting such a show are enormous. Throw in the ridiculous concept of dynamic pricing, that pushes prices into the stratosphere depending on demand, and gigs continue to be unaffordable.
I don’t quite know what the solution is to make live music accessible to everyone and not just those with deep pockets. It certainly isn’t a wealthy CEO telling us how good we already have it, though.
NRL and AFL Grand Final performances
In the news this week the epic battle between the Geelong Cats and the Brisbane Lions in the AFL grand final for 2025. It was an epic battle that saw the Lions emerge victors. Before the game even started, 100,000 fans were greeted to a sound that had never shaken the hallowed turf of the MCG before a football match — West Coast Gansta Rap, or in this case, G-Funk.
The beats were supplied by legendary but controversial rapper Snoop Dogg. Before the performance even happened he was in the news for some ill-conceived comments about the LGBTIQ+ community, and the announcement of his performance at the grand final also raised some eyebrows.
He started his performance by revving up the crowd on the video screen, before unleashing a 15 minute performance that had echoes of pep rallies and college football in the USA, with cheerleaders, marching bands, and synchronised dancing, with fireworks and flame cannons. There was not a hair out of place with the performance looking professional as a made for TV spectacle would be. It also featured some local talent involved, with Jessica Mauboy joining in on vocals in a Lettermen jacket, Yolgnu rap prodigy Baker Boy bringing in some didgeridoo and Tash Sultana on guitar.
The performance of course had its detractors, however it was largely reported that the performance went down as one of the best pre-game performances in the history of the AFL. I couldn’t help but feel the performance was a bit anachronistic next to Mike Brady trotting out “Up There Cazaly” again…
Contrasting that with the National Rugby League grand final which is taking place on the long weekend (Sunday 5th October). NRL boss Peter V’Landys making a sideways swipe at the AFL about having “what’s he called, Labrador or poodle? All I know is it’s a dog act”. Meanwhile, he proclaims that the act he booked for the NRL grand final, facial tattooed country singer Teddy Swims, is a “bloke [that] can really sing”.
V’Landys hopes that Teddy Swims will help promote the NRL in America, in a similar way to how the Snoop Dogg appearance drove the AFL grand final to its highest viewing numbers ever. That said, there is some conjecture that Swims may not appear at all, given that on his Instagram he was told by doctors to cancel gigs in Hawaii recently due to voice troubles. The NRL has dismissed this speculation, however, and Swims’ label Warner Music has confirmed the NRL’s statement. This should be interesting how this pans out but I think this would be more in the wheelhouse of most footy fans that Snoop Dogg was.
Thelma Plumb at the ARIAs
November, aka Australian Music Month, is almost upon us, and with that comes the ARIA awards. Australian Music’s night-of-nights is back again this year and it is controversially presented in partnership with Spotify.
Heading the nominations this year is Electronic artist Ninajirachi with eight nominations, DJ Dom Dolla with seven nominations, Melbourne bogan punks Amyl and the Sniffers have six, and First Nations singer-songwriter Thelma Plum with an amazing five nominations.
Plum has had a huge year with her second album ‘I’m Sorry, Now Say It Back’ hitting number 1 on the ARIA Physical albums sales chart and top 10 on the Digital sales charts. She also won the Rolling Stone Australia Award for Best Single 2025 for her track “Freckles”.
The publicly voted awards have been integrated with the Spotify app, but not everybody is happy about it. Nominees for the 2025 Michael Gudinski Breakthrough Award, the brilliant Melbourne punk band Gut Health, think there are major ethical issues with this.
In a statement, the band said:
“We’re thankful for the nomination… we can’t ignore the irony of ARIA partnering with Spotify. The platform is infamous for paying artists fractions of a cent per stream, and over time, has been criticised for using “ghost artists” on their platform, leading to even less royalties flowing to the real musicians.”
I couldn’t agree more. Unfortunately, ARIA have signed up for a three-year deal with Spotify so the complaints will fall on deaf ears…
New music — The High Street Drifters
Something a little different for new music this week is the new double A-side single by Melbourne’s High Street Drifters. They are making waves in country music circles right now with their signature blend of traditional bluegrass with a modern edge to it.
“Words for Leaving” is a painful ballad of lost love and parenting ways too soon.
In the words of writer Stuart Coupe:
“…the track captures both the intimacy of love found and the ache of inevitable goodbyes.”
The other track joining this release is “Snakes Reach”, which is a blistering bluegrass instrumental, with some fiery mandolin action. “‘Snakes Reach’ captures the joy of playing flat-out bluegrass,” says guitarist Daniel Watkins.
“Being part of Australia’s growing bluegrass scene while carrying our sound onto the world stage is something we’re really proud of.”
These two tracks are definitely worthy of your ears.
Until next week…
LISTEN TO THIS WEEK’S SPECIALLY CURATED PLAYLIST BELOW:
David Kowalski is a writer, musician, educator, sound engineer and podcaster. His podcasts ‘The Sound and the Fury Podcast’ and ‘Audio Cumulus’ can be heard exclusively HERE. You can follow David on Twitter/X @sound_fury_pod.
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