Luxury takes center stage

Planning to catch some of your favorite bands live this spring or summer? You may want to consider investing in a golden ticket.

Seeking to boost profits in a music business increasingly driven by concert revenues, performers, promoters, and venues are collaborating to offer fans elaborate - and expensive - perks, usually peddled as "VIP packages."

Take the Eagles' show at Citizens Bank Park on June 14. Ticket prices range from $50 to $225. But if you're willing to shell out $750 to $895, you get a front-row seat, access to a private lounge serving dinner and drinks before the show, and a laminated pass just like the one the roadies wear.

Perhaps as significant for some concertgoers, the extra fee also buys convenience. You get parking close to the building, "hassle-free entrance," and your own merchandise booth far from the maddening crowd.

"Exclusivity comes at a high price, and that's what people are looking for," says Ray Waddell, the senior editor for touring at Billboard magazine.

The best seats in the house for Sting's concert in July at the Susquehanna Bank Center in Camden cost $183.25. The VIP package costs 80 percent more to sit in the same section. The lure: a T-shirt, a poster, a program, the aforementioned laminate, and "an exclusive Sting tour gift."

Because the number of front-row seats is limited, the top-tier packages may cap out at as few as a dozen customers, so they tend to sell quickly. There could be 200 other "gold" and "silver" packages at the same show, with different seats and perks. More than half of arena and stadium tours offer bonus arrangements of this type.

The premium amenities available at big multiday rock festivals can be even more luxurious.

At Coachella, the three-day festival beginning Friday in the California desert town of Indio, admission and camping fees for two run nearly $700. Or you can reserve an air-conditioned double-occupancy tent fit for a sheikh for $1,000. It comes with its own restrooms, showers, and golf carts to ferry you around to see more than a hundred acts, including Jay-Z and Muse.

For the members of the now-gray Woodstock Nation who are still passionate about music, those types of creature comforts aren't a luxury; they're a necessity.

"When you get to this stage in life, it's a little harder to brave the elements," says Jay Waldman, an inveterate concertgoer and chief executive officer of a Manhattan logistics company. "This means if you don't want to camp or end up 200 yards from the stage, there are packages to make things more pleasant. It's not as easy when you're in your 50s to stand on your feet for five hours."

Says Dan Berkowitz, founder of CID Entertainment in New York, which sells similar high-end musical experiences: "I camped at Bonnaroo, and it was great. But I just knew I wanted a little more. Going to a music festival should be enjoyed rather than endured."

With that in mind, his company is offering a customized deal for this year's Bonnaroo in Manchester, Tenn., in June. For $18,000, you and up to 19 friends can bunk on a "tour" bus. Plus, you get an open bar, "artists' catering" - you eat what they eat - golf carts, backstage passes, and side stage viewing.

Concerned with the creeping elitism of these premium packages, Jonathan Mayers, cofounder of Bonnaroo, tries to make sure that the luxe customers don't lord it over the general-admission crowd.

"We're conscious of our brand," he says. "It's a very community-based event. But if somebody wants to spend more money, they should have that opportunity."

Most festivals limit the number of plush accommodations to about 150 attendees.

Dormant for more than a decade, the femme festival Lilith Fair will come to the Philadelphia area at the end of the summer with some bonus options of its own.

"The top one is the Diamond Package," says Chris Cabaluna, chief financial officer of SLO VIP Services. "Mainly because it includes a meet-and-greet. You quickly meet select artists and get a quick photo with them. You also get a front-row seat at the main stage."

The Diamond ducats cost $750, about three times the cost of the costliest conventional ticket.

A decade ago, only country artists were this accommodating and available to their fans. Why the change?

"These days, the live show has become so important because the money from recording has dried up," says Berkowitz, who started his company in Philadelphia making tour arrangements for the Disco Biscuits. "In the past, artists were unwilling to hang out and meet the fans. Now they are."

The level of performer participation varies significantly.

A number of artists - from Beyoncé to ZZ Top - market meet-and-greet events on their tours. But the most legendary performers still won't submit to these in-person sessions, because they don't have to and because of safety concerns.

"With big stars, we'd have to submit a list of the names who signed up for the meet-and-greet so that security could make sure they're not on any stalker list," says Cabaluna.

Paul McCartney, for instance, on his just-concluded U.S. tour, offered a VIP package that included admission to his sound check. But individual face time was never on the table.

All of these premium packages grew out of the traditional fan-club model. Back in the day, bands rewarded their most devoted loyalists with preferential treatment when they came to town.

The difference is that today, you pay for everything you get. And thanks to computers, musicians are able to pitch their fans with far greater efficiency.

That's how Kevin Martz, a Morgan Stanley exec who lives in Northeast Philadelphia, got involved in the Cayamo cruise, which puts you on a boat in the Caribbean for a week with singer-songwriters like Steve Earle and the Indigo Girls.

"I got an e-mail from [singer] Patty Griffin's Web site saying, 'Hey, we're starting this new cruise with Brandi Carlile, John Hiatt, and a bunch of other great performers,' " Martz says. "I have five kids. I went into the kitchen and showed the e-mail to my wife.

"I told her, 'These are seven of my 20 favorite listens. How many of us in the family are going?' "

The Holy Grail for any music fan is casual access to an idol. On a boat, you not only have a captive audience, but also captive performers.

"What people enjoy the most is that opportunity for intimate contact," says Roger LeMay, the general manager of WXPN-FM (88.5), who was on the Cayamo cruise this year. "To be in the buffet line with John Prine or at the bar with Lyle Lovett."

You'll pay from $1,100 to $5,200 for that privilege, depending on the location and size of your cabin, about twice the cost of a conventional cruise.

Artists from John Mayer to Lynyrd Skynyrd have skippered their own musical voyages.

Philadelphia's Rose Tours has had great success putting boy bands like the Backstreet Boys and Boyz II Men on the open seas.

"Our biggest and most successful theme cruise to date is New Kids on the Block," says the travel agency's owner, Hal Rose. "We have a full ship, 1,900 people, and this year it sold out in two hours."

The trend with these VIP packages is leading to greater and greater fan access.

"The line between the performer and fan has been blurred lately," says CID's Berkowitz. "I can't mention the band, but we're working on a program where you get to ride on their tour bus with them for a few days and experience what that's like."

After all, who wants to party like a rock star when you can party with a rock star?