Why are concert ticket prices so high?
In the last 10 years, concert ticket prices have skyrocketed. If you want to see Eric Clapton in Toronto it will cost you $125. Elton John in Vancouver? $149.50. Even a ticket to see Tom Jones will set you back $140 (although you would need your head examined if you paid this). So what happened?
In 2002, David Bowie was quoted in the NY Times saying that music downloading has cut into the revenue stream of musicians. No surprise there but it has forced musicians to find other ways to make money. The solution? Tour like crazy and charge as much as the market will bear.
I would be surprised if Elton John made any money on his last album — Peachtree Road (2004). I would be even more surprised if he was losing money from illegal downloads of this album. The point is, Elton John is always on tour. Tom Jones is always on tour. The Rolling Stones tour, tour, tour.
If people are going to pay over $100 for a concert ticket then these bands and musicians will continue to perform live, even if they don’t have any new material to play. The ticket prices will continue to rise until people get fed up and stop coming to shows. Then the music industry will blame poor attendance on concert DVDs and home theatres.
Stumble It!Posted in Music at 10:53 AM
Comments
You know what else bothers me is Ticketmaster.
Take the latest Radiohead show at the Hummingbird Centre on Wednesday June 7 and Thursday June 8. The tickets went on sale via ticketmaster at 10am a few Saturday’s ago. My wife and I had two laptops setup for the different days on the page where you purchased the tickets from Ticketmatster. We were on the site from 9:30am. At 10am we clicked to purchase tickets, the site said that tickets were no available for either date. This really pissed me off since I had been waiting to see them again. The next annoyance was that I went to eBay to look for tickets and they were available for $500 per ticket. It seems like many people just bought tickets to profit from them on eBay.
What about their real fans? Let’s look an example of a band who RESPECTS their fans, WILCO. If you registered on the Wilco site for their newsletter, you were allowed to purchase advance tickets 24 hours before they went on sale at Ticket-shyster. As a result, we have third row seats to see arguably one of the best live performance bands out their today.
Therefore, there’s more to the problem then bands touring too much. In fact, I think they could do more shows. The key is to remove the non-fans and scalpers who are out just to make a buck. The true, loyal fans are being screwed.
PS. I think tickets prices are outrageous. I can’t remember the last band I paid over $100 to see. I don’t even think Radiohead tickets were over $100.
However, if you want an old-school live music experience looks for bands playing at the Mod Club. The club holds about 500-700 people max. Many great bands have played there such as The Streets, Wilco, and Josh Rouse. Forget seeing the Rolling Stones at ACC for $150. You will have a much better time seeing a lesser known or up-and-coming band at The Mod Club.
Posted by: Ian Skinny Giles on June 15, 2006 3:31 PM
Capitalism? Free market economy? John Smith? Are these ringing any bells?
Socialist losers.
Posted by: Andrew Gates on June 19, 2006 10:18 AM
Surely the market is changing. I’m sure gigantic record company’s are no longer making loads and loads of $$ like they did in the 70’s 80’s, but the reason is that they have refused to change with the times. They are like IBM mainframes. They can adampt or they can get left behind. Since, they have chosen the later, I personally have no pitty for them (as I have no pitty for IBM).
That being said… concert ticket prices are laughable! It’s obvious that the man is trying to make up their loss of profit (because of poor planning) by charging you about 10x more than they did 15 yrs ago to see a “national live band”. Honestly, I can count on one hand the number of bands I’d pay the “going rate” go see live. It’s just the principal of the whole thing. If it was an all-day thing (like a “fest” kind of thing), sure that’s worth the $100 you pay, but what they’re asking for is just plain old retarded!
Check your local paper! If you live in a remotely large town, there are *loads* of good up-n-coming bands playing in the larger local venues (for
Posted by: Marc on December 17, 2007 10:51 PM
