Andrew....
I have mixed emotions on the VIP thing. I'm sure there are people here that would dish out 2-300 bucks for these seats, myself included.
However, VIP tickets does very little to boost the popularity of the music and bring the genre itself back from the doldrums. I personally disagree that MR is experiencing a resurgence....In various pockets it is...but I don't see the economy supporting a healthy new 'scene'....
I would look to the infant years of musical festivals like Nearfest (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NEARfest). Nearfest has become one of the most prestigious prog music events in the eastern US. It started out small. The musical artists were accessible to the fans, they sold their CDs in the audience, it was sorta like a dead-head convention for progies. Its so popular that it sells out months in advance, every year.
Personally, I think the idea of a VIP ticket is a terrible idea...you want to make this music and the artists that produce/make it MORE accessible. not less accessible....The long term health and viability of the genre will benefit from such a mindset.
Go ahead and have different tiers of tickets...with the highest tier yielding the best seats...but I would try to find a way to make everyone who buys a ticket feel like they can have access to their artists.
One of the biggest detractors of this style of music are the artists themselves...most of them still think it's the 80s...and that they deserve a plush chinese wall seperating them from their fans. The fact of the matter is that this genre needs ambasadors....guys like Eric Martin and Kip Winger .... who seem incredibly approachable....
Seriously.....take a cue from Walter Elias Disney.....setup meet and greets for every artist. Don't make it a VIP thing. Let everyone get 12 seconds and a pic with their favorite artist......
burn
