Live Nation's Club Passport

In yet another example of the severity of the slide in concert attendance, giant concert promoter Live Nation announced on Thursday the introduction of the Live Nation Club Passport, which gives attendees an all-access pass at specific clubs for $49.99 until the end of the year. The pass applies to a number of House of Blues venues, as well as all clubs promoted by Live Nation.

On the surface this seems like a pretty good deal if you go to a lot of club shows until you read the fine print and see that the Passport doesn't guarantee that you get in if the show is hot, meaning that you still have to purchase tickets to popular shows. So a seemingly great deal is really just a way for Live Nation to up the attendance at some of their less popular shows, rather than the real bargain that it's made out to be.

But it's the artist that always loses, and it's still unclear how an act will be paid if most of the crowd is made up of people with Passports. If you're dependent upon the door, it looks like you'll be out of luck if you expect to make any dough, but it's still better to play in front of people than to an empty house.

While this seems like a post that's down on Live Nation, it's really not, since you've got to hand it to them because at least they're trying new things to boost attendance, and that can't be all bad.