FOMO: Are You Looking Up?
FOMO… sounds derogatory, all too familiar to most — the fear of missing out.
I saw Mk.gee at Marathon Music Works in Nashville, TN on September 20th for $40 and it was the best $40 I have ever spent in live music. Hands down. But it wasn’t this cheap for everyone.
Now, for some context:
Marathon Music Works is a GA venue in Nashville, TN with a capacity of 1,500 people.
Mk.gee is a 28-year old indie-alternative singer-songwriter, guitarist and music producer from New Jersey.
MMW sells their event tickets on their venue site, NOT Ticketmaster, etc.
MMW frozen ticket price was $40.
Tickets were available for purchase until 2-3 days before the Friday night show, when it sold out.
After it sold out, resales popped up ranging from $100-$300 a ticket.
… I knew a good handful of people who forked over $100 to a reseller for a ticket that night too, but why? The “barrier of entry” here didn’t exist until three days to doors, so why the sudden urge to fork over not only $40, but almost three times as much?
Well, it might be because I go to Belmont (a music school full of singer-songwriters AND producers), but everybody and their brother was going to be at the show, and they were talking about it.
“I am so excited for Mk.gee on Friday,” turned into:
“Do you have tickets for Mk.gee,” turned into:
“Did you see the videos of his Dallas show?”
And after all, the most effective form of marketing is word-of-mouth.
I think it is interesting that with growing narrative of Ticketmaster as the common enemy within Live Events that audiences are still so quick to succumb to resellers when they could have just spent less money earlier. There is a social reaction happening here, especially within indie scenes, and I wonder what everyone else feels about it.
Think of the last “hot-ticket” in your town. Was it hot during pre-sale, or the night of when word-of-mouth travelled that your friends were going?
Was the last show you went for, for you?
Is FOMO an intrinsically bad trait? Where does the line of curiosity end and envy begin?
So are you looking up? Are you asking why? ‘Cause if you wanna go then, baby go wide. - Are You Looking Up, Mk.gee.
[PHOTO CREDIT] Mk.gee at Marathon Music Works 9/20/2024 photographed by Jamison Costolnick
