Pay for concert on the installment plan

Buying stuff on layaway has been around for a long time for buying such things as a TV, patio set and Christmas gifts. Now music fans can do it with concert tickets, too.

The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in Indio, Calif., is selling a $269 three-day pass on layaway -- in either two equal parts, or putting down 10% and paying the rest in two installments in March and April before the April 17 festival begins. The layaway tickets are only available online.

In a recent New York Times story, it was reported that the layaway offer was made as a pre-emptive measure against sluggish ticket sales that have already hurt other music festivals, said Paul Tollett, president of GoldenVoice, the production company behind Coachella.

Eighteen percent of Coachella tickets have been sold under a payment plan, Tollett told the Times.

He said the company tested a layaway option in October for StageCoach, its country music festival April 25-26 in Indio. "That crowd has been rocked by foreclosures," he said. "We thought if we made it easier, we could still get people there."

Other music festivals planning layaways include Bonnaroo in Tennessee, All Points West in New Jersey and Country Thunder in Arizona.