Is Groupon the New Pay-to-Play?


I'm sure I've seen odder things in life (I once saw a guy pick up shed snake skin from the ground, put it between two slices of party bread and EAT IT, no joke), but I'm pondering the existence of these Groupon deals for concerts. I just saw one for a show at the House of Blues with 100 Monkeys. While it seems like the venue is cutting these deals to drive traffic to their shows, you have to wonder: do the musicians suffer when venues cut deals like this? And if so, is Groupon the new pay to play? 
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Its a good deal–$10 for a $20 ticket, or $56 for a VIP package, for the all-ages LG Ones to Watch Presents 100 Monkeys show, featuring openers Bleeding Horse Express, The Kissing Club, and The Alternates at House of Blues Anaheim on Saturday, August 27, at 7 p.m. 

(If you don't know, 100 Monkeys is mostly famous for having Jackson Rathbone who plays the vampire Jasper Hale in the Twilight series).

It's interesting because Groupon works as an assurance contract; according to its Wiki page,
if a certain number of people sign up for the offer, then the deal becomes available to all; if the predetermined minimum is not met, no one gets the deal that day. This reduces risk for retailers, who can treat the coupons as quantity discounts as well as sales promotion tools. Groupon makes money by keeping approximately half the money the customer pays for the coupon. So, for example, an $80 massage could be purchased by the consumer for $40 and then Groupon and the retailer would split the $40. That is, the retailer gives a massage valued at $80 and gets approximately $20 from Groupon for it.

In this case, is the House of Blues just driving people to its Anaheim location or is there more to it? How much are bands getting per ticket if HOB is getting $5 for the deal and Groupon gets $5? In a case such as this, does the band's pay check get a cut? Inquiring minds want to know….
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