Research & Trends: The $500 Set List

By Matthew Deeter

Leave it to Steve Martin, my favorite actor and comedian, to put one of the newest consumer technologies into proper context for the retail industry. His appearance at MerleFest 2010 in Wilkesboro, NC, this spring referenced how his concert performance would be greatly enhanced by his new $500 set list — on an Apple iPad. Gone were the days of using a scrap piece of paper to keep order to the songs and monologs scheduled for the evening. That approach to set list management is so yesterday. This new set list is hip, cool, and so 21st century.