can someone tell me how ticket prices are determined by the promoters for a given tour? i know the band probably doesnt have that much say in it…
The band has every say in it.
Bands ask for a certain amount of money when they go on the road. Usually this amount of money will fluctuate a bit - in markets they are stronger, they will play in front of more people, and ask for more money.
Promoters will then set the ticket prices based on how much they are buying the act for so they can get a fair profit, but not so much that people won’t come because it’s too high. (This is, of course, how it should work).
On top of that, sometimes the band will take DIRECT control. Fugazi, Washington DC post-punks, had a hard rule about never playing for more than a $5 ticket price. Needless to say, they made sure that the price to book them was commensurate with this demand.
And when the offer comes in from the talent buyer - it will say how much doors will be - the booking agent can veto an offer if it thinks that the prices are too high (and substantially less people will be there) or too low (pissing off other markets potentially and taking away from their money).
Ultimately, either directly or indirectly, the bands make the call on how much you, the fan, pays to see them, barring things such as surcharges from ticketing agencies.
Just don’t ask me about tee-shirt pricing! 
Yer pal,
Satan
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i will ask:
how do they determine tshirt and other merchandising prices? 
This question deserves better, so…
There are numerous participants in the market process: bands, audiences, promoters, agents. Three ways a reasonably successful band can get paid:
[li]a guarantee - a set fee that you get no matter how many turn up.[/li][li]a door-deal - the band gets a percentage of the door takings.[/li][li]a bar deal - the band gets a cut of the bar receipts.[/li]
Obviously these have different incentive and risk properties. With a guarantee, the band has no risk and little incentive to promote its own shows. If you are touring a lot and you have an aggressive agent, this can get embarrassing. I once played a bush pub where the guarantee was A$5000 and there were 30 punters.
Typically, bands are paid a mixture of these methods. A smallish guarantee is used to reduce the risk to the band. The promoter is usually willing to do this because they live in the town and have superior knowledge of the preferences of the locals.
On top of this the band gets a door deal of the following sort: 4 dollars out of the 10 (ticket price) after 500 people have paid. This means that the better the gig goes, the better the band does, and that the promoter’s risk is reduced since the band has some incentive to help promote the gig.
The band may well specify maximimum ticket prices, which ensures sell-outs. Over at the recent scalping thread, I said:
picmr