Only read the first sentence so far, but this is the second time in the last week that I war reminded Veruca Salt and Live existed. Alright, just finished. I agree that point of purchase for tickets is a failure at this point. I wanted to see two concerts this year that I decided not to buy tickets for because I had to physically go to the box office while I had to be at work. There I would be entered into a lottery, and maybe I would get one of the tickets available for presale. You couldn't buy them online, because the artists wanted to try and reward dedicated fans by giving them a shot at "beating the bots" for the best seats. But for the most part, I don't need to be any more connected than I am now. If it's a small band, I will go up after the show and talk to them. If it's a big band that's not really an option, and it isn't like they are going to want to talk to all their fans anyway. Hell, if you really want to, you can tweet at them or something. What I do wish more bands did was record all of their concerts and make them available for purchase afterwards.
I agree. When I saw Pearl Jam, there was a lot of crowd interaction. People got brought on stage if it was their birthday. Someone had a Ramones shirt, so they played a couple of Ramones covers. Eddie Vedder told some story about his past drug problems and thanked the crowd for helping him stay clean. Stuff like that is more impactful to me than getting the equivalent of a tweet or a free drink like the author mentions.