Rihanna has now cancelled tonight's concert in Baltimore citing flu and laryngitis.
The good news is that the tour promoters (Live Nation) have made this decision early putting out a statement at what is really the start of the working day in the US. While I think it's more than a little arrogant to assume that Rihanna's tour will have much of an impact on either the Kenyan election or the Roman Catholic papal conclave this certainly makes life easier for anyone who was planning on going to the concert. After all they now know they don't have to leave school/work early or buy travel tickets to go to the venue.
This is good because up until now the strategy appears to have been to create an us versus them relationship between Rihanna and her fans. Unfortunately this attitude is still on display through Live Nations refusal to offer refunds for either the Boston or Baltimore concerts. Instead they're advising fans to retain tickets for use at a rescheduled show. However having looked at the tour schedule it's going to be difficult to find the time for rescheduled concerts and it may well become impossible as more and more concerts get cancelled. The problem is that while different nations and different states all have slightly different rules generally you've got 28 days following the date of a cancelled show to get a refund. By refusing to immediately offer a refund Live Nation appear to be trying to waste that 28 day period in order to minimise their losses at the fans expense.
Regardless of what decision is made about refunds Live Nation have now got to be in full on crisis mode deciding whether the rest of the tour can go ahead. That's because if Rihanna is really suffering from flu or laryngitis rather then say a common cold you're looking at a recovery period of at least four weeks.
This will be a major financial blow for Rihanna personally. That's because while digital downloads have brought down costs single sales are still pretty much a loss making exercise to boost album sales which are about making money for the record company. It is through tours and public appearances that performers like Rihanna actually make their money. That said she's at best only receiving about a dollar from every ticket sold. So it would be possible for Live Nation to refund the tickets sold and then have Rihanna fans donate a single dollar of their refund directly to Rihanna via say a PayPal account allowing Rihanna to take the rest of the year off.
That's because the period between the para-Olympic closing ceremony and autumn 2013 is the period where Rihanna should have been given some personal time. After all that is why my people agreed to this little exercise.
16:45 on 12/3/13.
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