Source: Photoshopped by yours truly.
Over the past few years, I have noticed a sense of dissatisfaction amongst the student body in relation to the music entertainment sponsored by the Appalachian Popular Programming Society (APPS). I have been approached numerous times with questions such as, "Why don't we have Lorde or Ed Sheeran or (insert popular entertainer here) perform at Appalachian?" Or "Why did UNCC have J.Cole for their homecoming show and we didn't?" If you've ever pondered about this, look no further. I have all of the simplified answers to this complicated question.
1. Boone is a secondary market.
Source: http://bit.ly/1oRyONG
When agents are booking a tour for an artist, they want to stop in a city that will make their client (and in turn, themselves) a lot of money. Seeing as Boone has a student population of only 17,000 (students are the only audience we are concerned about), an agent is much more likely to book shows in Charlotte, Raleigh, or Asheville because of their high volume of population. The question that may arise here is, "well then why don’t they just have a show in the city and then one in Boone as well?" Sometimes the routing of an artist’s tour doesn’t work in our favor and we would be an inconvenience to them.
2. The cost of performers has increased exponentially over the past ten years.
Source: Degy Entertainment via priceonomics
The introduction of music as a digital medium was, and still is, detrimental to a musicians' paycheck. People, especially poor college students, hardly pay for music anymore (gasps). Performers do not make nearly as much money off of record sales anymore. Nowadays, they must constantly tour to make a living. Our society places an enormous value on entertainment. People are willing to shell out $100 to see Beyoncé because, it's Beyoncé. Agents know this fact very well and so do music venues, which is why they are willing to shell out the big bucks for a popular performer.
Most bands' asking prices are ridiculously high. Regardless, some promoters will pay this price. This hinders our ability to book the act when another venue is willing to pay the full amount. Other venues can prevent an act from performing here in other ways. Certain venues such as the Orange Peel in Asheville include a proximity clause in their contracts that they sign with artists. This forbids them from playing anywhere else within 100 miles for that week, in some cases up to a whole month. This clause completely ruins our chances of booking any popular act that may pass through major cities in North Carolina.
Most bands' asking prices are ridiculously high. Regardless, some promoters will pay this price. This hinders our ability to book the act when another venue is willing to pay the full amount. Other venues can prevent an act from performing here in other ways. Certain venues such as the Orange Peel in Asheville include a proximity clause in their contracts that they sign with artists. This forbids them from playing anywhere else within 100 miles for that week, in some cases up to a whole month. This clause completely ruins our chances of booking any popular act that may pass through major cities in North Carolina.
3. We have limited access to the Holmes Convocation Center and the Schaefer Center.
Source: Alex Franzen
Appalachian is unique in that we have our own on-campus music venue. No other university in the nation has a set up like we do. We are free to use Legends as we please. However, Legends only holds 1000 people so the acts that most people want to see are too big for this venue. That leaves us with Schaefer and Convocation. Both of these facilities have the power to place reservations on certain dates, which they do frequently. Athletics has priority with the Convocation Center, like APPS has priority with Legends. It is very difficult to find an open date with the amount of practices and games that take place there. This is a big reason why we can’t have larger shows because these facilities are hardly ever available for us to use.
4. APPS tries to accommodate the diverse music taste of all Appalachian students.
Source: Me
A small percentage of money is taken out of every students tuition each semester, which goes towards things like the student union, cultural affairs, etc. This is called the student activities fee. If APPS chooses to spend their entire budget for the semester on one act, only a limited number of people would be able to attend. This would, in turn, ignore a large portion of the student body’s wants and desires. What about the students who don’t like that artist? What about the people that enjoy going to see local and regional bands play in a more intimate setting? Instead we book almost 30 shows a year, genres ranging from comedy to rock and roll to country. This way we are representing the student population better.
5. We get really good deals on shows so that we can consistently bring entertainment.
Source: Pollstar
Believe it or not, we pay much less for shows than the average market (see above). This is because we have a seasoned booking agent that knows how to negotiate.
Over the past few years, APPS has been lucky with the number and variety of concerts we’ve had. Some of these include Ben Folds, Gavin DeGraw, Ron White, Lewis Black, Nick Offerman, Dr. Dog, SOJA, Ghostland Observatory, Mimosa, Grace Potter and the Nocturnals, Gramatik, Lee Brice, Victor Wooten, GRiZ and many, many more. These names may not be the absolute hottest thing right now but they are still well known, relevant acts that students enjoy.
If you are still unsatisfied with the entertainment that comes to Appalachian, join APPS! That is the best way to ensure your opinions are heard. It’s kind of like complaining about the president when you didn’t even vote in the election.
And now here we are, the end of my first post. Hopefully this wasn't too painfully pretentious.
Cheers,
Rachael
Over the past few years, APPS has been lucky with the number and variety of concerts we’ve had. Some of these include Ben Folds, Gavin DeGraw, Ron White, Lewis Black, Nick Offerman, Dr. Dog, SOJA, Ghostland Observatory, Mimosa, Grace Potter and the Nocturnals, Gramatik, Lee Brice, Victor Wooten, GRiZ and many, many more. These names may not be the absolute hottest thing right now but they are still well known, relevant acts that students enjoy.
If you are still unsatisfied with the entertainment that comes to Appalachian, join APPS! That is the best way to ensure your opinions are heard. It’s kind of like complaining about the president when you didn’t even vote in the election.
And now here we are, the end of my first post. Hopefully this wasn't too painfully pretentious.
Cheers,
Rachael
I have been a member of the Appalachian Popular Programming Society for the past three years. Two of which were on the executive board as music chair. These views do not represent those of the Appalachian Popular Programming Society.