Despite the existence of a number of famous music festivals in the United States in the 20th century there was no major annual production until the early 2000s. This paper examines what characteristics are important to current commercially successful music festivals when making hiring decisions. A model of customer demand motivates the empirical analysis, using a unique bundling problem in which the consumer faces an unknown element. The empirical analysis utilizes characteristics important to

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... he negotiation between festival and the band as input in order determine what input substitutions must be made in establishing profitability. Results show festivals are more likely to hire inexperienced bands of higher quality over experienced successful bands in order to take advantage of the lower costs, a practice likely extended to other industries such as streaming video services.