Ozzy Osbourne, Getting the Fidelity/Convenience Model All Wrong

Certainly many of us would not even go for free to see Chthonic, a metal band from Taiwan that wears Kiss-like make-up and has members with names like Jesse the Infernal. But over the summer, free their performances will be -- as part of Ozzy Osbourne's grand experiment he's called FreeFest.

Which is one of the most boneheaded business decisions in rock music this year.

Ozzy for 11 years has run the wildly successful Ozzfest metal music festival, which last year charged $125 per ticket. He announced this spring that concert ticket prices are too high, and that Ozzfest would charge nothing for tickets -- and also pay nothing to the bands performing.

His business logic? Ozzy says the bands will get a chance to play before thousands of potential new fans who will go out and buy the bands' CDs.

Doh! But who under 25 buys CDs anymore?

The thing Ozzy gets wrong is that, in the fidelity vs. convenience trade-off, consumers are finding less reason to buy music CDs but more reason to pay increasing amounts of money to see concerts that are more than just music, but become great experiences. And on the flip side, artists realize they won't make as much on CDs, and count on revenue from their live performances.

Ozzy is quoted in the Irish Examiner today saying, "Who wants to pay 500 pounds to see Barbra Streisand in London?" Which, again, shows he's missing the point. Streisand in fact sold out one show, added another, and sold out that one too.

As for FreeFest, its policy of not paying bands means the festival is stuck with Chthonic and a line-up of lesser acts. Hope everyone enjoys Lordi, Ankla and 3 Inches of Blood.