Comments on: Poll: Are concert ticket prices too high?

Going to concerts, in small clubs and large venues can be an expensive night out. Do you still see live music? Or is it priced out of range?

[ssicomputers]

I'd say in general they're too high. However, there are a few isolated instances of reasonable pricing such as No Doubt's $15 lawn seats.

[jarannis]

Hmm... Wonder where YOU live... only one venue I know of with Lawn Seats.

They're okay seats, too, if you get there early.

[jzsaxpc]

go down into a dirty club and listen to some justice. cheap underground scene is where its at.

[Juliancheh]

JUSTICE! do the D A N C E, 1 2 3 4 fight.... you were such a P.Y.T, catching all the light..

[SEXYDIVERGUY]

Those tickets are a bargain.
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.

[cvaldes1831]

Those tickets are a bargain.

Britney Spears and Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus command five hundred dollars or more. I think I saw $1500 seats for Britney.

[Seaspray0]

It's alot cheaper and more enjoyable for me not to see britney.

[funkyboot]

Bowery Ballroom, Irving Plaza, Webster Hall, and then the smaller NYC venues all pretty much max out prices for their biggest acts at $30, with smaller, but still well known acts usually going for half that. The smaller places like Maxwells in Hoboken, or the Mercury Lounge usually average between $8-15. So as far as indie rock in smaller clubs is concerned, ticket prices are right where they need to be, even in the otherwise overly-expensive city of Manhattan.

So I guess ticket prices are relative to what music you listen to and the type of venue you expect to see a show.

[MadLyb]

I like club shows, but until they go non-smoking, they are a no go for me. Some places are getting a clue on this, but for now, I just avoid them.

[charlieaccf]

It is not the ticket price that bothers me so much as Ticketmaster service fees and venue fees which sometimes together can add $20 or more the the cost of an already pricey ticket!

[OctoChops]

agreed. I'll glady pay the artist what they ask, but the monopoly that Ticketmaster has become with their "convenience" charges is getting absurd.

[cvaldes1831]

Ticketmaster (a.k.a. Ticketb-stard) and Live Nation are totally guilty of inflating ticket prices with stupid convenience charges. Jerks.

Also, most concert venues absolutely ream you on beverage pricing (although not quite the full-fledged sodomy that occurs at professional sports events).

[Donniebrasco]

Exactly. I was okay paying $130 per ticket for Elton John/Billy Joel, but when I saw the tickets.com charges that amounted to about $60 for two tickets, I was floored. "Convenience charges" are fine when they offer an "inconvenient" alternative. Let me drive to the venue to buy the ticket and avoid the charge. The problem is, that option doesn't exist. The charge to print your own ticket is also absurd. They should pay us to do that.

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.

[Trerro]

Currently, the RIAA screws bands over to the point that they make ~$0.25 per album sale. Concerts are pretty much the only way a band can actually make money because of this. So yes, I think prices are higher than they should be, but unless the RIAA collapses, I don't think that's going to be changing any time soon.

[UsingUrBrainSinceUArent]

Totally agree. I thought that this was supposed to be the new economic model for music.

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.

[sndfirststage]

Tickets are way out of reach. I used to go to 4-5 shows each year. No way. I have basically
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.

[NickH]

> "Tickets are way out of reach."

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.

[slakerx]

I paid $43 for general admission tickets for Green Day in Albany, NY, which is a little high but worth it to me. What I was not expecting was for the times union center to slap a $42 service fee and a $3 print at home fee on top of the tickets. I don't mind paying for the tickets, but service fees, especially at $42, are ridiculous. Maybe If I would of gone to the TU Center I could of avoided the fees, but I don't want to make a trip to Albany for something I can do at home.

[Renegade Knight]

It's become like buying a car.
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.

[nicmart]

Value is not determined by votes, but by the willingness of people to buy. If the concertgoers didn't think the tickets were a fair value, they wouldn't buy them.

[shinelikeitdoes]

This might be the most ridiculous statement I have heard in a long time. Almost on par with the notion that if grocery stores decided they wouldnt sell a single item in a store for less than $20 that the fact people still bought food indicated the value was there.

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.

[nicmart]

I'm not aware of anyone who was ever forced to buy a concert ticket. Are you? Concert tickets, unlike groceries, are close to the least essential items that can be had; yet many people choose to buy them. Of their own free will.

[ofmyony]

I think the musicians should charge whatever they can get. I stop going about 20 years ago because of the outrageous prices. There are a lot of people who will pay almost anything to see their favorite artist and I feel bad that they have to pay such high prices.

So good for the musicians, bad for their audience who wants to see them.

[pentest]

People are morons, they willingly get fleeced.

[DNestlerode]

High ticket prices for stadium shows by major label bands that have known multiple platinum recording sales are an effort for those bands to maintain an income commensurate with CD sales figures that are no longer possible. Both the bands and the tickets are remnants of a music industry that no longer exists.

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

[DrYDino]

The "published" ticket prices are what the talent thinks the public is paying to attend their performance. The real price includes both the scalper's fees and the box office employee "surcharge" that puts them in the scalper's hands. Someday performers will put a stop to this abuse, but not until they understand some dork in the ticket office is making more from their performance than they are!!

[grossj144]

Pearl Jam did try to do that and no one else jumped on board that train. That is unfortunate, too, since Ticketmaster truly is driving the cost of tickets through a roof that fewer and fewer people are willing to go through. It's a shame, too.

[bgstrong]

Tickets are priced at what the market will bear..
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.

[pentest]

Horrible analogy. That car probably cost more than $20k to get the parts.

What you are describing is not free market, but taking advantage of people with a disadvantageous brains/money ratio.

[bmail]

It's not the ticket prices that drive me nuts, but the outrageous "service charges" that the ticket vendors tack on to them. The only reason they get away with it is because Ticketmaster is basically a monopoly.

[xim1970]

I absolutely agree...the "service charges" are outrageous! Why do I have to pay an additional $40 to have someone take my order, and then (maybe) someone else has to put it in an envelope and mail it to me...hey, Ticketmaster, cut back on useless employees...or cut their pay...

[jonsmirl]

I agree that ticket prices are driven by supply and demand and the market will find the right price. I don't agree that market based pricing is happening with recorded digital music.

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.

[ikramerica--2008]

it's easy for you to say "tour more." their response should be... "can't afford the ticket? why don't YOU work harder?"

[xcal78]

"it's easy for you to say "tour more." their response should be... "can't afford the ticket? why don't YOU work harder?""

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.

[billmosby]

How about Billy Joel with Elton John, Salt Lake City, Energy Solutions Arena, for somewhat under $300? Celine Dion, same venue, a little under 140?

Too rich for my blood, but they have to keep diesel in all those semis, I suppose.

[easygimik]

The local music in the Twin Cities is so good I haven't been paying attention to national acts that come through here. I would much rather see Birthday Suits at the Turf club for $7 cover then Metallica at Xcel for $50 a ticket.

[James Anderson Merritt]

The price for BJ+EJ is a bit steep, justified (I suppose) by the chance to see the two of them together on one stage, and the fact that this might never happen again in anyone's lifetime. But after the service fees are added, the prices could win the Ansari X-Prize for attaining low Earth-orbit.

Green Day tickets have always been a bargain. We got excellent seats this year for under $50 each (before "service fees").

[ikramerica--2008]

Saw that 15 yrs ago. ;)

[kramnosrac]

Steely Dan is an old favorite of mine. They are playing in Durham and I'd love to see them. With ticket prices of $145 to $352 I don't think so. Makes me feel like downloading all their music with LimeWire an not give them a thin dime.

[meh130]

I paid $16 or $18 to see The Police during their Synchronicity tour in 1983. That would be around $40 in 2009 dollars. There is no doubt today's concert tickets are too high. In the mid 1980s, most arena show tickets were in the $25 range. Think about it. At $100 in 2009, Springsteen is charging about 2X after inflation what tickets to his Born in the USA tour cost.

[xggrand]

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).

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!