An event ticket offers you admission to the event. It may correspond to a specific seat in the venture. It may allow you access to various areas throughout a complex.
But when you buy an event ticket, you have not rented physical real estate. Even if that ticket directs you to a specific seat.
The event location has two business models. It is in the business of renting space to high-paying customers to set up an experience for ticket-holding customers. It is also in the business of giving those ticket-holding customers a place to gather and safely take in the experience provided by the high-paying customers.
The high-paying customer’s job is simple. Provide the experience the ticket holding customer will get something out of. If it’s a concert, it should be joy and excitement. If it’s a conference, it should be knowledge and comradery.
My relationship with the broadcasting industry is currently being tested as the disruption in the media is changing the nature of the business. If the exchange of legal tender is not happening, you’re not running a business, and the ways that we have to acquire funds from real people and corporate entities have changed, and not for the better.
Broadcasting is a delivery system, but as in the past, it was built on the delivery of the content (entertainment and informational). Now it is built directly on revenue generating entities (commercials and sponsored content from brands and directly paying customers).
I am in the business of collecting fans of my brands as the ticket holding customers who are looking to gain asses to the high-paying customers to get their experience. I am not in the business of making great content as the experience, supplemented by advertising. I am in the business of delivering advertising as the experience with the bait being content that’s a cheap and easy to produce as possible, meaning not necessarily very good.
The business model is not inherently bad. It’s all about knowing the true nature of the business and what my bosses will have me peddle to the public. I have the choice to push the desired wares, or shove off.
I love this business, despite some of the useless chattels that we are increasingly putting out into the market. But somedays, I wish I were more suited for direct sales.