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Justin Timberlake On Las Vegas Residencies: “It Feels Like You’re Planning Your Retirement”
Justin Timberlake may not be rustling up the charts with his new music, but he’s certainly rustling feathers. While promoting new album ‘Man Of The Woods’ on Beats 1 radio, he made a comment about Las Vegas residencies that probably won’t resonate well with fans of former flame Britney Spears. Find out why below…
After discussing the rigors of the road, as well as the challenges attached to prepping his upcoming tour, host Zane Lowe asked JT whether he’d ever consider Vegas – as the likes of Spears and more recently Lady Gaga have. His response was:
It’s fair to say recent years have seen the likes of Britney, J.Lo, and co change the semantics of the “Vegas residency.” But ultimately we’re all entitled to opinions. Do you agree with Justin?
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Historically speaking, he's not wrong. Once an act his past his/her creative and commercial prime the best way of making money is through live performances. Especially when they're performing their hits. A lot of acts have done it. Elvis, Prince, Celine Dion etc. There's no shame in it. Bills still need to be paid and if you're unable to reach a modern audience like you did at your peak then Vegas is a great way to earn. | |
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And the legendary Rat Pack (aka Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr), would have loved to have hopped in a time machine to watch their shows
Keep Calm & Listen To Prince | |
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I think the prerequisite is that you have to have some hits first...as in more than one... | |
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He said nothing wrong. | |
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. if it was just a dream, call me a dreamer 2 | |
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It's true. You don't see up and coming bands playing residencies at Vegas, it's for established artists that can draw a large crowd every night by playing a crowd pleasing set from a well known back catalogue. | |
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Mainly because no one now can sell enough to do a residency. I mean Billy Joel lives at MSG and a bill of Beyonce and Alicia Keys a few years back couldnt sell it one night. Residency events dont mean that you are through sorry to say, most of these artists are still putting out music, I mean britney is retiring?? Alright she is not selling millions a day like 20 years ago but fuck who is and JT sure is hell is not going to come close with this record those days are over, he is old news now. Prince still put out music Elton does, etc...MY issue is that these residencies force the artists into HITS laundry list type shows and does not let them do anything else, for Prince it was something he did a few times, for Elton the same thing, I mean he has played solo piano shows, straight album cut shows and no hits, so that is what I miss and hate sometimes with these Vegas things. To me I always say this, your buying a ticket guarantees you a seat, nothing else, the artists should play what they want. "We went where our music was appreciated, and that was everywhere but the USA, we knew we had fans, but there is only so much of the world you can play at once" Magne F | |
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Tours can be grueling...going from one city to the next,living out of hotels for several months,plus it can be really expensive.I can certainly see why some artists prefer these residency deals.Seems easier to stay in one place and have the fans come to you. | |
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100% agree. Might as well just take a whole album and do a residency for a couple months - year your album is pushing out. Save alot of money that way. Straight Jacket Funk Affair
Album plays and love for vinyl records. | |
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Especially today because artists are not groomed to tour anymore, sorry to say that is over. BUT if you stop the touring, you pretty much kill the musician. Residency things are fine if you can sell it out, but trust me these Vegas places are mainly for tourists and those coming from overseas to see it, when the audiences dwindle its over for the artist. On tour you can still get by selling 60% of a venue but do that in Vegas or any kind of residency and its over, the only reason Billy Joel is stuck here at MSG is every show is sold out the guy has been here for what seems like a century playing the same songs. The problem with doing an album at a residency is the casual fan comes to that, they dont want to hear the new so and so album in its entireity they want the same songs they can hear on the radio 24/7. "We went where our music was appreciated, and that was everywhere but the USA, we knew we had fans, but there is only so much of the world you can play at once" Magne F | |
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Even today with the ability to build an audience online, I think this is a bad idea. Not actually "touring" for a tour saves money but at the cost of missing out on making more and expanding your fanbase for even more potential profit in the long term, especially overseas (e.g. Europe, Asia) where a fanbase is traditionally more loyal.
Besides when one releases an album, especially one that ends up being huge (as huge as an album can get these days, anyway) then the natural reflex is to tour in support of the album not only to satiate fans with the chance to make new ones but also to bolster the sales of the album which of course equates to more money.
Fledgling artists could not withstand the residency method. [Edited 1/27/18 8:27am] | |
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Artists that can do a residency are ones that are already PAID and have long term deals etc...Mariah can do it, Prince did it, Jovi did it, Elton can do it. You are not going to see a new artist on the scene try and do a residency on a few albums, even someone as big as Bruno right now could not do a residency, he's not there yet, or a Katy Perry or even Taylor Swift there is no catalog to sit on. The artists I mentioned have catalog and long term fans and also WORLD WIDE appeal so they can also get tourists in to a place like VEGAS because people all over know who they are. AND yes you have to tour if you are a new artist regardless of how much you are selling, that is where you build an audience, online is not going to do that, long term fans are ones that pay to come out and see you. Take a new artist like Fifth Harmony, 3 albums out and an EP but they have toured 5 times already and not just here, but everywhere, england, japan, south america, australia. So despite them not being a big seller in the USA, a few hit singles, a platnum album and 2 gold ones, they have a solid following but do shows so there is a connection to that following, not just likes on a page or downloads on soundcloud, which is meaningless end of the day. "We went where our music was appreciated, and that was everywhere but the USA, we knew we had fans, but there is only so much of the world you can play at once" Magne F | |
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lastdecember said:
Artists that can do a residency are ones that are already PAID and have long term deals etc...Mariah can do it, Prince did it, Jovi did it, Elton can do it. You are not going to see a new artist on the scene try and do a residency on a few albums, even someone as big as Bruno right now could not do a residency, he's not there yet, or a Katy Perry or even Taylor Swift there is no catalog to sit on. The artists I mentioned have catalog and long term fans and also WORLD WIDE appeal so they can also get tourists in to a place like VEGAS because people all over know who they are. AND yes you have to tour if you are a new artist regardless of how much you are selling, that is where you build an audience, online is not going to do that, long term fans are ones that pay to come out and see you. Take a new artist like Fifth Harmony, 3 albums out and an EP but they have toured 5 times already and not just here, but everywhere, england, japan, south america, australia. So despite them not being a big seller in the USA, a few hit singles, a platnum album and 2 gold ones, they have a solid following but do shows so there is a connection to that following, not just likes on a page or downloads on soundcloud, which is meaningless end of the day. You make a good point that even low album sellers can negate that weakness if they tour regularly since that's how even top-selling names make the bulk of their money. | |
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Yeah there really is nothing in streaming and even the overall sales unless you are doing an indie release. And in FH's case they are not a strong album seller, they are more of a singles seller if even that, so they market themselves well through social media but again they back that up with going out on tour and seeing what is out there, there are some new artists now that think its all about Social Media and selling a few singles and getting LIKES and Views and Clicks that they dont ever bother to build human connections so they are done quickly. "We went where our music was appreciated, and that was everywhere but the USA, we knew we had fans, but there is only so much of the world you can play at once" Magne F | |
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