I just looked up how much the cheapest ticket for Leonard Cohen’s show in Dublin this coming Saturday would be. €85.60 (approx. US$110). Ticket prices for top tier shows don’t seem to be coming down even though people here have way less money than a few years ago. The demand still seems to be there for really expensive nights out. When I look at ticket stubs from the '90s concert prices seem to have sky rocketed. Is this a local thing or do you see it elsewhere? FWIW when acts tour the UK and Ireland, the Irish tickets are almost always higher than standard UK ones.
In 1981 I think I paid US$12 to see Cheap Trick in an arena; I don’t remember who opened for them.
Nowadays, arena shows cost minimum US$100/ticket, and some hi-draw bands charge that much for small club gigs.
Thankfully, most of the music I listen to now is by bands that aren’t that popular with the general public, so they play small venues and charge reasonable fees.
The only arena band I’ve seen in the last 10 years, I think, is Slayer and they still price their tickets in the $30-40 range, even tho they tour with like 4 other bands.
Yes, for the most part ticket prices are a ripoff.
Well, given the amount of pirated music nowadays, I assume musicians have to make their living somehow. So think of it as subsidizing your local torrent sites.
(I may be making the naive assumption that some large amount of those ticket prices goes to the performer.)
Big shows are expensive. I’d hesitate to call $110 to see Leonard Cohen a “rip off” but that’s in the eye (ear?) of the beholder. It is expensive though. Sort of like I might think $125 is a fair price for an exceptional steak dinner at a great restaurant but I’m still not going to order one.
Most of my music show experiences are in small venues with $15-20 price tags.
Saw Cohen last tour - it was totally worth the price.
Just sayin’.
I think the shows are ridiculously expensive, which is why I only go to one every year or two. I’m going to see Bruce Springsteen in a couple weeks and I think they were over a $100 or so each. In 1987 I saw Paul Simon in Philadelphia and the face price on the ticket for front row center- right in front of his mic stand- was, I believe, $24.
Isn’t that an obscure Louisiana backwater?
What drives me really crazy, more than the prices, is you can’t seem to get really good seats to a popular show for love or money. First there are all the seats reserved for the promotors or whatever. As soon as the show goes on sale whole blocks of seats are already unavailable. Then what’s left is snatched up in 2-3 minutes while you’re still trying to get on the website. I have no idea how people get front row seats.
And we won’t even talk about ticketmaster!
I don’t mind paying money for a show I really like, but I don’t want the nosebleed seats all the time, every time. I did manage to get third row seats to La Reve (sp?) in Vegas. THAT WAS AWESOME.
But that’s for the cheapest ticket!
Yeah it’s $110 for the shit seats.
I haven’t read it by a recent book called “Ticket Masters” is supposed to be a thorough investigation
of the concert system. They blame a lot of people for it but do say it is surprising how much the artists have to do with prices and seat allotments, despite their often fan friendly poses.
http://www.spinner.com/2012/07/05/ticketmasters-book-interview/
No. I see lots of indie acts at smaller venues, and $15-$25 is the price range (there are no cheaper vs. more expensive seats at these shows).
And yes, ticket prices for huge acts are a rip-off. I saw U2 in 1987 (with the Pretenders opening) for $25. According to some inflation calculator I found, $25 in '87 would be around $47 in 2010. But I’m pretty sure U2 tickets in 2010 cost quite a bit more than $47.
I saw U2 last summer and for the General Admission tickets it was $75. Those are the best tickets in my opinion BUT you generally have to stand in line for hours and hours and hours on the day of the show to get close to the stage. I think the nosebleed seats were $60 and the lower level were the most expensive at $150 or more.
Yes. Back in the early 1970s, when I was an undergraduate at Leeds University, I saw Leonard Cohen (already a star) for less than £1 (one pound). I do not remember the price exactly, but I know it was under £1 because the most expensive concert I saw during the whole period I was an undergraduate at Leeds cost exactly £1, and I remember it because it seemed outrageously high fora ticket price at the time. That was for the Pink Floyd. The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Jethro Tull, The Kinks, Wings, etc. etc. were all less than a pound. Regular ticket prices for top line acts in Britain (playing a venue holding about 2,000) were probably roughly equivalent to about a dollar at the exchange rate at the time. (I think a pound was then worth about a dollar fifty).
I know there has been a lot of inflation since then, but concert tickets for top line acts have inflated much, much more than most things. People try to justify it by saying that now you get a much more elaborate show, but come on! Is Leonard Cohen going to be putting on a laser light show?
I mean $110 is for the cheapest ticket to Leonard Cohen, you can pay way more.
The prevalence of scalpers suggest that tickets are actually fairly drastically underpriced. Rather the opposite of being a rip-off.
Hoping this is a whoosh.
Nope. If concert promoters charged what people were willing to pay for concert seats, there wouldn’t be any money in scalping. There’s lots of scalpers, and so obviously concert promoters are charging significantly less then they could and leaving money on the table.*
*(the explanation I’ve heard for why is that the bands want to ensure they have a full-house, and are willing to forgo immediate profit to do so. I go back and forth on whether that actually makes sense, but since the practice seems almost universal for big-name concerts, presumably there is a strong reason for underpricing tickets).
I admit I’m WAGging, so if you have a cite you can beat me, but it seems like scalpers simply take advantage of the decreasing supply. The last seat available is worth way, way more than when all seats are available, but the house sells them all for the same rate.
I’m not sure how the house could do otherwise, though. If they raised each subsequent ticket price to reflect the decreasing supply, they’d run into some real trouble, especially if a show sells out in a short amount of time. (“When I bought my ticket the website said $75, but when it went through you charged me $150!” is just one of the possible problems.) If they raised the flat rate to some average, the first half of seating would be too expensive to purchase, and the last half would still be susceptible to scalping.