Winners Take All in Rockonomics

Princeton economist Alan Krueger claims concert ticket prices are going up up up because record sales are going down down down — but it’s led to a situation where the top 1 percent of artists are receiving 56 percent of the total concert revenue.

Professor Krueger says this tendency was spotted by David Bowie, who told the New York Times in 2002 that “music itself is going to become like running water or electricity”.

Bowie has advised his fellow performers: “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.”

(Via Kottke.)

★ Monday, 22 May 2006