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"The NFL&amp;apos;s reported plan to get major pop stars to pay for a coveted halftime appearance at next year&amp;apos;s Super Bowl will work only if the pop stars participate. And several outraged music-business sources predict they won&amp;apos;t. &amp;quot;Halftime&amp;apos;s for sale,&amp;quot; says Dennis Arfa, agent for Metallica, Billy Joel&amp;#xA0;and Rush. &amp;quot;If I was a young band, and I had a billionaire backer, I&amp;apos;d buy my way to the Super Bowl &amp;#x2014; everybody would know me after the Super Bowl. Is Paul McCartney&amp;#xA0;going to pay? I doubt it.&amp;quot;\r\n\r\nThe NFL reportedly invited Coldplay, Katy Perry&amp;#xA0;and Rihanna&amp;#xA0;to submit &amp;quot;pay to play&amp;quot; bids of unknown value for the halftime show. (Reps for each artist did not return requests for comment.) It&amp;apos;s perhaps TV&amp;apos;s most valuable marketing platform &amp;#x2014; after Bruno Mars&amp;#xA0;headlined this year, he launched a worldwide tour that grossed $43 million by midyear, according to Pollstar, and Beyonce&amp;apos;s post-Super Bowl 2013 tour made nearly $180 million. &amp;quot;Obviously it is a marketing boon to play halftime for the Super Bowl,&amp;quot; says David T. Viecelli, agent for Arcade Fire, Mumford &amp;amp; Sons&amp;#xA0;and St. Vincent. &amp;quot;But I hope that everybody tells them to go get stuffed.&amp;quot;\r\nThe NFL wouldn&amp;apos;t give further details. &amp;quot;We&amp;apos;ve ruled out Janet Jackson,&amp;quot; a spokesperson jokes, referring to the infamous wardrobe malfunction&amp;#xA0;during the 2004 Super Bowl, &amp;quot;but beyond that we do not have a comment on talent discussions.&amp;quot; The spokesperson did, however, send a 1,300-word email showing how recent halftime performers have dramatically boosted sales after performances &amp;#x2014; Madonna&amp;apos;s tracks rose 165 percent in 2012, and the Who&amp;apos;s jumped 392 percent in 2010. Reps for the NHL and NBA didn&amp;apos;t respond to questions about whether the leagues would consider pay-to-play, but Major League Baseball said they have&amp;#xA0;never asked artists to pay for appearances and have no plans to do so.\r\nAgents and managers say the Super Bowl generally provides production costs but does not pay halftime performers &amp;#x2014; the event landed a record 112 million viewers this year, dwarfing any other TV show, which may be a clue as to why the NFL is beginning to flaunt its leverage on this issue.\r\n&amp;quot;I&amp;apos;m not sure what artist in their right mind would give up a piece of their touring or ancillary sales to play the Super Bowl. If the NFL wants to charge artists to perform, I would just counter-program with another network and create our own halftime show,&amp;quot; says Troy Carter, manager of John Legend, John Mayer&amp;#xA0;and Meghan Trainor. &amp;quot;Let&amp;apos;s say you put Rihanna, Lady Gaga, Beyonc&amp;#xE9;&amp;#xA0;and Meghan Trainor on one show during halftime &amp;#x2014; I&amp;apos;d be willing to bet you&amp;apos;re going to get a pretty big audience.&amp;quot; Adds another manager of a prominent artist: &amp;quot;With the revenue generated from&amp;#xA0;all the sponsors the Super Bowl has, it seems a little strange. I&amp;apos;m trying to understand the reasoning.&amp;quot;"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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