[Kim]

What do you think of Retriever? Does it sound really different from the earlier albums? I have to save my pennies until after Christmas, so it'll be a couple months til I get to hear it.

You've GOT to get Whereabouts. It's absolutely brilliant. Almost all my top 10 favourite Sexsmith songs are found on that album.

Retriever - so far so good. Can't tell you how it compares to his earlier stuff though as I'm just starting to get to know his stuff.

I put Whereabouts on my long list of CD's to buy. :thumb:

What's your number 1 Sexsmith tune?

[grooveless touque]

Uh oh...I'll have to go with a Top 3 on this one. I can't choose one!

Still Time - Whereabouts
Grey Morning - Whereabouts
Foolproof - Blue Boy

[CanuckCourage]

Articles and people like this..





Will higher ticket prices spark higher attendance?

EDMONTON - If you increase the ticket price of an opera, a symphony performance, a jazz concert or a play, will more Canadians come?


U.S. arts consultant Neill Roan says they will and that higher prices are a signal of higher quality to audiences.

Roan is one of the featured speakers at conference in Edmonton where performers, arts organizations, venue managers and cultural promoters are looking at ways to expand the audience for performing arts in Canada.


Ticket prices set by Canadian symphonies, opera companies, theatres and other venues are historically too low, says Roan, who spoke at the annual conference of the Canadian Arts Presenting Association.

"Price is an extremely important way that people measure quality because so many products are intangibles – we can't measure them – we're not expert enough consumers to know what's good and what isn't," he told CBC News.

The price on a ticket can change the way a patron feels about the art being presented, he says.

Peter Feldman, executive director of the association, experienced this exact phenomenon, which he calls "reverse snob appeal," during a stint as a Canadian promoter in the 1980s.

Feldman was once able to book a popular jazz group for a low fee and chose to pass the savings onto the audience through inexpensive ticket prices.

"The audience looked at the posters, read the ads, read that the ticket price was $10 and instantly assumed 'This show cannot be worth my attendance,'" he recalled.

According to Feldman, a price that audiences deem too low can be just as damaging as a price set too high.

Canadian artists and cultural organizations should begin charging what they think they're worth. However, they should not simply raise prices indiscriminately, but be sensitive to the notion of perceived value, Roan says.

"You have to know that there's high satisfaction [in the performance] and you have to know when someone perceives they're getting way more value than they're paying for," he said.


Written by CBC News Online staff