Poll: Are concert ticket prices too high?
I still remember this Loudon Wainwright show at the Bottom Line club in NYC thirty years ago.
(Credit: Steve Guttenberg)Let's face it: Musicians' income from CDs and downloads is on the wane, so they have to make a buck where they can.
Ticket prices for local venues in New York City can be pretty steep. Small jazz clubs can easily run $30, plus a two-drink minimum.
Steve Knopper's "High Ticket Prices Could Hurt Concert Business" article in Rolling Stone at least pointed to relative "bargains" among the big summer tours. Tom Petty and Bruce Springsteen's shows have ticket prices under $100; Dave Matthews Band's seats go for $32 to $75; Pearl Jam's range between $42 and $77. Metallica, $50 to $76; Phish, $50; and if you can't miss U2, prices range from $32 to $256.
Those are the big shows, but here in New York City, jazz great Chuck Mangione will play at the Blue Note in July, and tickets are $20 to sit at the bar, $35 at a table. Over at BB King Blues Club and Grill in Times Square you'll pay $32.50 to see the Neville Brothers on August 8. They're great.
I still think prices are too high overall, but if you love the artists it's worth it. You gotta support the ones you love.
What do you think?
Are prices way out of line?
Or are they about right?
Can you tell us about any bargains?
Steve Guttenberg is a frequent contributor to magazines and Web sites including Home Entertainment, Playback, and Ultimate AV. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network, and is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure. 
They're okay seats, too, if you get there early.
Aerosmith with ZZ Top are $200.00 and AC DC are are $135.00 both are stadium shows.
Ticket prices are crazy. At one time I would see everything now I'm pretty picky.
Britney Spears and Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus command five hundred dollars or more. I think I saw $1500 seats for Britney.
So I guess ticket prices are relative to what music you listen to and the type of venue you expect to see a show.
Also, most concert venues absolutely ream you on beverage pricing (although not quite the full-fledged sodomy that occurs at professional sports events).
The shady sales tactics are also deplorable. When I went to buy those Billy Joel tickets for my girlfriend, I had no idea what the ticket prices were until I was already in the "system" and had a 2 minute clock counting down before I would lose my tickets. You also can't choose different seats. I would take a couple rows further back to get seats on the end. That option is non-existant. Add in the fact that when a band tries to be fan friendly and does a cheap, small venue show the tickets are somehow gone in 20 seconds, but are available at 3x's face value on stubhub the exact minute they sold out is awfully suspicious to me. If the the Ticketmaster/Live Nation merger is allowed, then we might as well kiss affordable concerts goodbye, if it wasn't already bad enough now.
Since fewer are inclined to pay for recorded music anymore, make money from the people that want the luxury of seeing your perform, or the other luxury goodies. Soak those that want to pay for the fluff if you can't charge for the substance. Makes sense to me, if it's sustainable.
I love to hear people complaining about Ticketmaster. It's been this way since I started going to concerts 35 years ago. Welcome to the 20th century.
chosen a few bands to see before they get too old and that will be it. I refuse to sit in the
lawn. Won't go unless I can sit 15 rows or closer and that is almost impossible with the ticket companies scooping up the tickets and scalping on another site. I will just buy the DVD and sit on my couch with the surround sound cranked.
The principal of supply and demand would seem to indicated otherwise - tickets for this A-list gigs are usually by definition not expensive, simply becuase they are sold out. You could even make the arguement that they are too cheap if they sell out.
If you offer 24,000 and the dealer accepts. Next thing you know they ask you for a 25142.00 because of Dealer Document, Title, Processing, Service, and Additional Dealer Profit fees.
They should just has for the money up front.
Going to concerts used to be something you could do for fun almost on a whim. Now you have to pick and choose. There is absolutely no additional value now to what was there when you went 5 or more years back. The shows arent better, the venues arent all new and somehow amazing to add to some perceived value. You are getting exactly what you used to for $20-30 just now the act and especially the promoters/ticket agency are raking you over the coals.
The people doing this to "fans" deserve to have their music "stolen". People should be able to even out the equation somehow.
I have been fortunate enough to have seen most everyone I have wanted to at one point or another but I genuinely feel bad for teenagers nowadays who rather than just grab a few tickets to the next cool show, have to somehow manage a small loan to be able to attend - and then t-shirts of your favorite band are what , $50?
The music business is just screwing itself.
So good for the musicians, bad for their audience who wants to see them.
A pod of great white whales are touring the nation. They can command such prices because there are son few massively popular rock bands left. When they're gone, the rock stadium
It is called "supply & demand" in a free market system..
I would like a new Mercedes S630AMG for $20k but
only an idiot would complain about not being able to
get one for that price.
What you are describing is not free market, but taking advantage of people with a disadvantageous brains/money ratio.
Bands -- if your fans think ticket prices are too high take the hint and tour more. If you are selling out shows tour more. These are market feedback signs that people want to give you money. Go collect it.
I'd give up on trying to collect money from record digital music. Think of it as advertising and use it to fill your concerts. You're far better off with the advertising effects than $13.67 in royalties.
It's not the prices as much as the demand. If you could fill up 2-5 nights worth of people in a city then why do you only perform there 1 night? You may as well stick around and milk it for as long as you can in each area then move on. It's the limited number of tickets that drives up the scalper prices to events not the actual face value price.
Too rich for my blood, but they have to keep diesel in all those semis, I suppose.
Green Day tickets have always been a bargain. We got excellent seats this year for under $50 each (before "service fees").
- by xggrand May 30, 2009 1:55 PM PDT
- I am a performing musician. I used to go to concerts all of the time. I've seen over 100 concerts with bands like; The Police, U2, Rush, Sting, Van Halen, Yes, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Weather Report, Tony Bennett, The Cure, Lionel Hampton, The Sugar Cubes, not to mention slews of regional bands... (dating myself, I'll admit), but I had NEVER paid more than $20.00 for a ticket. These were all great shows with great seats (some were General Admission).
- Like this Reply to this comment
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Showing 1 of 4 pages (90 Comments)Now days, I avoid any of the "big" artists playing the big venues. I find no enjoyment in paying tons of money for tickets (and the aforementioned "service fees"), parking, merchandise, long lines and short tempers, disgusting over-priced refreshments. Not to mention the deafening volumes at which the music is blasted.
I still go to concerts by well-known independent artists. I have taken my 11-year old son to several of them. It's nice to go to a small, intimate venue - find your seats near the front of the stage, and have the artists communicate directly with you (eye contact, stage banter and conversations). There is also the "wow" factor (for the kid) of having said-artist come out and sit down with you during their intermission and after the show. That strips away the "celebrity factor" and makes the performing artists real people. Something you will never get at an Aerosmith concert.
Nor does it hurt to have the whole evening (tickets, dinner, parking, CDs, ...) cost $100 or less for two people!
or maybe I'm just getting too cranky at 43 years of age... :-)
-- btw, I will be taking him to see U2 this fall. I'm pretty sure this will be the last big concert I will ever attend, though I may catch Spinal Tap this time around!