Surprised? Throughout his career, Jon Bon Jovi has plunged into every venture not as pretty-faced front man, but as a passionate entrepreneur and a successful marketer who guided his own career through the fever-chart topography of pop music, selling 100 million albums and counting. Bon Jovi out-earns younger, glitzier acts thanks to a relatively affluent, aging fan base who turn out to hear the ballads of their youth and see a tightly run touring machine built on decades of experience.
Whereas Lady Gaga schleps dozens of dancers from town to town and needs 28 trucks to cart her equipment, Bon Jovi typically plays with six people. A dozen trucks carry the gear, including a circular stage and 192 double-sided LED video screens connected with a specially designed motion control system, which allows them to come together to form a screen 13 feet high and 40 feet wide. At arenas like Montreal's 21,500-capacity Bell Center, the in-theround setup lets the band sell up to 5,500 more tickets than a traditional arena stage would. Wherever possible, Bon Jovi plays consecutive nights at the same venue to cut back on setup and strike costs. By playing 12 shows in 19 days at London's O2 arena the band saved $300,000.
On the revenue side the band's U.S. fans sport an average household income of $78,989, slightly higher than the mean for the 350 music groups tracked by research firm NPD's Brand Link database. The economic difference between Bon Jovi's fans and those of, say, Justin Bieber ($71,389) or Metallica ($71,089) is more than enough to cover a pricey special like the Crush Package, which comes with a grab bag of perks and tchotchkes, including souvenir lanyards, autographed lithographs and two front-row seats that you can fold up and take home after the show. The average cost for this VIP treatment is $2,550 per couple; low-end alternatives set you back $450. Bon Jovi sells an average of 600 individual special package tickets per arena show. Though regular tickets start at $20, these packages push Bon Jovi's average price to $95, about 50% higher than acts like the Dave Matthews Band ($59) and the Black Eyed Peas ($63). Bon Jovi shows have up to 20 different price points, including special packages; on a recent tour AC/DC offered only one.
Born in 1962 in Perth Amboy, N.J., a rough port town just south of New York City, John Francis Bongiovi Jr. decided to be a rock star at age 13 after seeing the Doobie Brothers in Erie, Pa. His break came when he wrote and recorded the song "Runaway." He sent his tape out to record labels but didn't receive any responses. So in 1983 he took his cassette to Long Island's WAPP, a station so new it didn't yet have a receptionist. He banged on the window of the DJ's booth and convinced him to play the song. Within months it hit number 39 on the Billboard charts. "That same cassette that was sitting on every record guy's desk was suddenly getting me phone calls," he says.
Mercury Records signed Bon Jovi that year. He clipped his name to Jon Bon Jovi and recruited guitarist Richie Sambora, drummer Tico Torres, keyboardist David Bryan and bassist Alec John Such to form his band. They're still together (minus Such, who left the band in 1994), but it isn't an equal partnership: Jon Bon Jovi keeps the bulk of the earnings, whereas bands like U2 split proceeds evenly.
Jon is the CEO of Jon Bon Jovi Enterprises where he is intimately involved with every business venture from research to marketing. As CEO he doesn’t believe in overhead and runs it lean and mean. “I've got just two people here. I've been self-managed for 19 years now. I had a creative falling out with my manager at the time, and the options were to go to another big management company -- and be a part of the puzzle -- or create my own. Twenty percent was just going out the window for something that wasn't necessary. My record deal was done. CAA was booking the tour. I just had to handle the creative and continue my relationships with the record company; I've been with the same record company for 20 years,” Bon Jovi said.
When Grunge transformed Rock many thought it would be the end of the band, but Jon implemented a new business strategy by entering other markets in Europe and Asia. His business success is very much grounded in authenticity –customers know when you’re faking it. “I'm not trying to be the 18-year-old new kid. And I'm not hanging out with Bob Dylan and Tom Petty and Bruce Springsteen and pretending I'm an old guy. I'm just me. Every time I release a song I know I may have to sing it in 20 years, so therefore I better be happy with it, really happy with it, and not do it just because it's going to be a hit,” Jon said.
There is a story that Jon once took some tracks to a pizza parlor and did a focus group with kids. “We were making demos for what was our third album in Sayreville, N.J. -- my hometown -- in a little demo studio. The game of telephone makes it sound like I was so smart to poll these people. But the truth is that I went around the corner to have a pizza, and a bunch of kids were in there, and they said we know you guys, you made two records, blah, blah, blah. So we invited a dozen of them back, and their reaction to various songs helped influence the decision-making.” His business advice? “Have failures because it strengthens you as an individual. The diversity that is part of my career has been great to help me learn about who I am and where I want to go.”
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