sydney opera house & the economics of scarcity

So here's the good news: Sydney Opera House is putting on Night Words. They have some of Sydney's best spoken word talent*. At the Opera house. With music. And other stuff. Book now!!!

And now for the less good news: I have heard on the grapevine that there is some weird "you can't perform several weeks either side of the event in Sydney" restriction on performers. Apparently this is quite common in the arts world. Because the audience for this stuff is small and we must guard our audience share at all costs. The preciousss is ourses.

Which if it's true is stuffed. Sure, you don't want someone trying to recreate a similar event the next week with the same line-up. But you do want these charismatic, talented people promoting your show all around town in a million smaller venues to new audiences. That's right: new people.

If you run your business on a scarcity model, don't be surprised if your market is well, scarce. Lots of parts of the arts seem to be run on exactly that scarcity model. And then there is a whole heap of whinging that the general public aren't interested or engaged**.

Now this may all be a load of rubbish. Can someone reassure me that the Opera House isn't doing something moronic?

*My favourite is probably Tom Keily - not only because he is a brilliant, passionate performer but also because he was an economist at the RBA in a former life.

**I am a crass populist and I love it.

N.B. There are lots of things that avoid the scarcity model: I was really impressed by the opening night of the Sydney Festival - so much cool stuff for free! The poetry / spoken word scene in Sydney does a lot of cross-promotion - largely due to Roberta, Danny & Jack.

the sound of my own voice

This may come as a surprise to many of you but I hate hearing my own voice. I literally tense up into a tiny ball of embarrassment. I find doing the mp3 recordings extremely painful but it's something I'm going to have to get over.

What do you hate doing?

creative economies

so 200 years ago (back before these new-fangle moving pictures and such like), people used to make their own entertainment. a lot of it was probably rubbish. but some of it was good. and much of it was theirs.

as much as i love mass(produced) culture - i have aaliyah projecting from my speakers rather than my own wonderful baritone - i have a soft spot for people doing this stuff for themselves. be it poetry or bands.

as i get older, i have less and less desire to share a gig with 20,000 other people - no matter how great the performer. seeing a half-way decent band with 50 other people in club can be better, more magical, more immediate than the stones in a stadium. there's a dilution effect - at least for me.

there is some sorcery in getting up on stage in front of people. for me (doing conferences or poetry slams - and i've rocked and sucked at both), it's all about connection. you want to reach people with your ideas, emotions, words. you want to tell them what they already know (on some level of truth) in a way they've never heard before.

and i would suggest that everyone needs that feeling, sometime in their lives (whether they know it or not). and where are the opportunities for that these days?