Madonna, Jonas Brothers Top Secondary-Ticket Sales In StubHub Year-End Report

According to StubHub's annual report for 2008, Madonna's Sticky & Sweet tour was the highest grossing on the secondary-ticket market and the Jonas Brothers sold the most tickets. "Despite the economic woes of the last few months and a lukewarm concert schedule for the year, ticket selling prices actually increased a bit from 2007," said StubHub's Chuck La Vallee. In fact, the average price per ticket rose $3, from $156 to $159. The total dollar gross for the company was also up 40 percent compared to 2007. In an interesting trend, it was the third straight year where six of the 10 biggest tours involved artists who have been around a minimum of 20 years.

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Song Stories

“Let My Love Open the Door”

Pete Townshend | 1980

A peppy, hopeful love song, "Let My Love Open the Door" became a U. S. Top Ten hit for Pete Townshend in 1980, anchored by the kind of repeating synthesizer figures that he'd used in some of the Who's recordings in the previous decade. Although Townshend brushed the song off as "just a ditty" in Rolling Stone shortly after its release, in 1996 he revealed it was about love of the holiest sort. "It's supposed to be about the power of God's love," he remarked. "That when you're in difficulty, whether it's major or minor, God's love is always there for you."

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