It sounds far too good to be true: Instead of raising ticket prices again, this summer's Ozzfest did the opposite and cut them away completely. That's right — Ozzfest 2007 is free.
The logistics of this aren't entirely clear yet, but Sharon Osbourne said in a statement released Tuesday that corporate sponsorship will pay for the bulk of the touring festival. To gain admission to the festival, which is said to include a stop in Hartford, fans will go through ozzfest.com or livenation.com and click through to sponors' sites where they can secure tickets.
"We're reaching the same point we did years ago when kids no longer wanted to pay for overpriced CDs," Osbourne said. "As a result, they found alternative ways of getting music. That's what's happening with summer touring in this country, it's out-pricing itself."
Sharon Osbourne is famous (or infamous, perhaps) for her steely business acumen, so you can bet there's some angle she's working. But if it really means not having to shell out upwards of $80 for Ozzfest this year, her ulterior motives probably don't matter unless there's a hidden catch.
There has to be some sort of catch. No way she would do something like that unless she was working an angle.
She's shady like that.
Remember when she had a couple of modern musicians rerecord the bass and drum tracks on a couple of older, remastered Ozzy albums so she wouldn't have to pay the original musicians royalties.
Good times.
Posted by: Unhappy Tom | February 09, 2007 at 11:17 AM
Eagerly awaiting Koplik to chime in and explain how this will be possible without catches.
Posted by: Derek Warren | February 07, 2007 at 01:13 PM
Cross Merchandising tie-ins is my bet.
Anything from the obvious tie-ins to the less obvious--order 3 Ozzfest band CDs, an Omaha Steak sampler, and an Ozz Fest 'Phat Farm' T-shirt for $129.00 and get a membership into the Ozzy club fan and 2 free tickets.
Posted by: Richard | February 07, 2007 at 09:57 AM