WSJ has an interesting, albeit somewhat hilarious “behind the scene” look at famous bands and their lucrative yet publicity avert corporate gig racket :

The standard contract stipulates the rocker spend 20 minutes greeting people, with a limit of 50 hands shaken, says SAP’s Mr. Giampaglia. To get it over with, producers sometimes line guests up in groups of two before the performer enters the room. […]

Some stars make demands of their own: Before Metallica would agree to its first-ever corporate gig, for Salesforce.com last year, the band stipulated that several hundred members of its fan club be allowed to attend free.

While the die-hards and the conference attendees mixed peacefully, Metallica fans on the heavy-metal band’s website complained later about the corporate crowd.

“Everyone is just pretty much standing there motionless with their cameras out,” wrote one.

Finding an act for the typical 40-year-old tech-industry attendee isn’t always easy. […]

Indeed, stepping outside the mold sometimes misses the demographic mark. In 2010, Oracle hired hip-hop’s Black Eyed Peas; one older Oracle salesman, asked the following year, recalled their name as “something with food.”