How much is too much for a concert ticket?
Discussion
Now I have been a regular moaner of concert ticket prices over the past couple of years but quite often people will just liken it to most kinds of trading - supply and demand and if the demand is there then people will pay the price.
I am sure the very capitalism slanted PH would generally agree with that.
But at what point would you refuse to pay and go and see your favourite artist?
Not necessarily because you thought they were our of your price range but because you thought they were taking the piss a little.
I am sure the very capitalism slanted PH would generally agree with that.
But at what point would you refuse to pay and go and see your favourite artist?
Not necessarily because you thought they were our of your price range but because you thought they were taking the piss a little.
Edited by Mojooo on Saturday 24th October 23:40
That's a tricky one to answer .... I don't think there's a black and white answer.
For example .... would I pay £200 to go and see a reformed Zeppelin play? Yes - absolutely. Would I pay £50 to go and see one of my absolute favourite bands AC/DC - no. Would I pay up to about £70 to see Pink Floyd play? Yes, probably.
I'm about to pay £18.50 to see WASP in December - which I consider a bargain
K
For example .... would I pay £200 to go and see a reformed Zeppelin play? Yes - absolutely. Would I pay £50 to go and see one of my absolute favourite bands AC/DC - no. Would I pay up to about £70 to see Pink Floyd play? Yes, probably.
I'm about to pay £18.50 to see WASP in December - which I consider a bargain
K
The price of tickets has risen at an alarming rate in the last few years. Your average gig at Wembly arena is in the order of 45-50 quid these days for a big name (but not considered legendary if you know what i mean). When I saw the Foo Fighters there in 2002 the price of the ticket was 19.50.
Acts such as Paul McCartney and his ilke whos ticket prices are in the 80quid+ territory are a disgrace. I think there is probably a tendancy within the industry for a bit of one upmanship with selling out large venues (like the 02 arean for example) at huge ticket prices. A kind of 'look what I can charge for a huge arena' mentality. It's supply and demand of course, and who am I to tell people they shouldnt spen their money on it, but I won't, you have to draw a line. Remeber, were dealing with fantastically wealthy people here, its almost like they're taking the p**S deliberately by charging so much.
Of course the promotors (who are the worst kind of scum in the music business) have more than their fair share to play in it all.
SOmeone earier said they would pay 200 quid to see a reformed Zep, why? Bonhams dead and they're old geezers now who arent what they were. One of my top 5 bands but i wouldnt go and see them now.
I love Mott the Hoople too, but I saw Ian Hunter 5 odd years ago and he wasnt that great, time had taken his toll so I didnt buy tickets for these gigs theyre doing. Most disappointingly of all on Mick Ralphs who seemed to have forgotten how to play. Still thats a whole other thread.
IMO ticket prices are too high now for music, its a total rip off. I saw the comedian Tim Minchin last night at Hammersmith Apollo (Odeon in my book) it was a packed house and the tickets were 20quid. So its financially viable for artists to do it. You wouldn't get tickets at hammersmith for a decent band for 20quid these days. To quote the movie 'Almost Famous' "the wars over...they won" Great shame really.
Acts such as Paul McCartney and his ilke whos ticket prices are in the 80quid+ territory are a disgrace. I think there is probably a tendancy within the industry for a bit of one upmanship with selling out large venues (like the 02 arean for example) at huge ticket prices. A kind of 'look what I can charge for a huge arena' mentality. It's supply and demand of course, and who am I to tell people they shouldnt spen their money on it, but I won't, you have to draw a line. Remeber, were dealing with fantastically wealthy people here, its almost like they're taking the p**S deliberately by charging so much.
Of course the promotors (who are the worst kind of scum in the music business) have more than their fair share to play in it all.
SOmeone earier said they would pay 200 quid to see a reformed Zep, why? Bonhams dead and they're old geezers now who arent what they were. One of my top 5 bands but i wouldnt go and see them now.
I love Mott the Hoople too, but I saw Ian Hunter 5 odd years ago and he wasnt that great, time had taken his toll so I didnt buy tickets for these gigs theyre doing. Most disappointingly of all on Mick Ralphs who seemed to have forgotten how to play. Still thats a whole other thread.
IMO ticket prices are too high now for music, its a total rip off. I saw the comedian Tim Minchin last night at Hammersmith Apollo (Odeon in my book) it was a packed house and the tickets were 20quid. So its financially viable for artists to do it. You wouldn't get tickets at hammersmith for a decent band for 20quid these days. To quote the movie 'Almost Famous' "the wars over...they won" Great shame really.
An explanation into ticket scams:
trent reznor said:
The ticketing marketplace for rock concerts shows a real lack of sophistication, meaning this: the true market value of some tickets for some concerts is much higher than what the act wants to be perceived as charging. For example, there are some people who would be willing to pay $1,000 and up to be in the best seats for various shows, but MOST acts in the rock / pop world don't want to come off as greedy pricks asking that much, even though the market says its value is that high. The acts know this, the venue knows this, the promoters know this, the ticketing company knows this and the scalpers really know this. So...
The venue, the promoter, the ticketing agency and often the artist camp (artist, management and agent) take tickets from the pool of available seats and feed them directly to the re-seller (which from this point on will be referred to by their true name: SCALPER). I am not saying every one of the above entities all do this, nor am I saying they do it for all shows but this is a very common practice that happens more often than not. There is money to be made and they feel they should participate in it. There are a number of scams they employ to pull this off which is beyond the scope of this note.
NIN gets 10% of the available seats for our own pre-sale. We won a tough (and I mean TOUGH) battle to get the best seats. We require you to sign up at our site (for free) to get tickets. We limit the amount you can buy, we print your name on the tickets and we have our own person let you in a separate entrance where we check your ID to match the ticket. We charge you a surcharge that has been less than TicketMaster's or Live Nation's in all cases so far to pay for the costs of doing this - it's not a profit center for us. We have essentially stopped scalping by doing these things - because we want true fans to be able to get great seats and not get ripped off by these parasites.
I assure you nobody in the NIN camp supplies or supports the practice of supplying tickets to these re-sellers because it's not something we morally feel is the right thing to do. We are leaving money on the table here but it's not always about money.
Being completely honest, it IS something I've had to consider. If people are willing to pay a lot of money to sit up front AND ARE GOING TO ANYWAY thanks to the rigged system, why let that money go into the hands of the scalpers? I'm the one busting my ass up there every night. The conclusion really came down to it not feeling like the right thing to do - simple as that.
Nothing's going to change until the ticketing entity gets serious about stopping the problem - which of course they don't see as a problem. The ultimate way to hurt scalpers is to not support them. Leave them holding the merchandise. If this subject interests you, check out the following links. Don't buy from scalpers, and be suspect of artists singing the praises of the Live Nation / TicketMaster merger. What's in it for them?
The venue, the promoter, the ticketing agency and often the artist camp (artist, management and agent) take tickets from the pool of available seats and feed them directly to the re-seller (which from this point on will be referred to by their true name: SCALPER). I am not saying every one of the above entities all do this, nor am I saying they do it for all shows but this is a very common practice that happens more often than not. There is money to be made and they feel they should participate in it. There are a number of scams they employ to pull this off which is beyond the scope of this note.
NIN gets 10% of the available seats for our own pre-sale. We won a tough (and I mean TOUGH) battle to get the best seats. We require you to sign up at our site (for free) to get tickets. We limit the amount you can buy, we print your name on the tickets and we have our own person let you in a separate entrance where we check your ID to match the ticket. We charge you a surcharge that has been less than TicketMaster's or Live Nation's in all cases so far to pay for the costs of doing this - it's not a profit center for us. We have essentially stopped scalping by doing these things - because we want true fans to be able to get great seats and not get ripped off by these parasites.
I assure you nobody in the NIN camp supplies or supports the practice of supplying tickets to these re-sellers because it's not something we morally feel is the right thing to do. We are leaving money on the table here but it's not always about money.
Being completely honest, it IS something I've had to consider. If people are willing to pay a lot of money to sit up front AND ARE GOING TO ANYWAY thanks to the rigged system, why let that money go into the hands of the scalpers? I'm the one busting my ass up there every night. The conclusion really came down to it not feeling like the right thing to do - simple as that.
Nothing's going to change until the ticketing entity gets serious about stopping the problem - which of course they don't see as a problem. The ultimate way to hurt scalpers is to not support them. Leave them holding the merchandise. If this subject interests you, check out the following links. Don't buy from scalpers, and be suspect of artists singing the praises of the Live Nation / TicketMaster merger. What's in it for them?
I personally seem to have drawn the line at £40-£50 for a straight gig (Festivals are a different matter!) which is roughly what we paid for Muse & The Foo Fighters at Wembley. This isn't a conscious decision to draw a line at a particular price point (although not paying the prices Jagger & co have been asking for the last few 'Stones tours and being astonished at what people were willing to pay for the Zeppelin show at the O2 certainly were!) it's just how things have worked out so far.
Actually what's annoying me more are the ticketing policies some promoters are adopting. I've got 2 teenage (14 and 16) kids and a wife who love live music and enjoy the same sort of acts I do and going to a big spectacular show makes a fantastic family outing. Sadly some promoters and acts (yes Green Day and whoever's promoting your current tour, I'm looking at you...) take the view that if we want to do that we've got to buy our tickets on the "secondary market" (i.e scalpers and touts) which is kind of ironic given that the justification for the "2 tickets per card and/or address) policy is to keep tickets out of the hands of the touts and scalpers. As it was, having spent ages trying to get to the "buy tickets" page to be confronted with "F*ck off if yopu've got more than one friend and/or a family" I just thought "Well b
ks to you then Billy Joe if you don't want my money..." and downloaded a copy of 21st Century Breakdown through bit torrent in an act of petty spite... :-)
--
JG
Actually what's annoying me more are the ticketing policies some promoters are adopting. I've got 2 teenage (14 and 16) kids and a wife who love live music and enjoy the same sort of acts I do and going to a big spectacular show makes a fantastic family outing. Sadly some promoters and acts (yes Green Day and whoever's promoting your current tour, I'm looking at you...) take the view that if we want to do that we've got to buy our tickets on the "secondary market" (i.e scalpers and touts) which is kind of ironic given that the justification for the "2 tickets per card and/or address) policy is to keep tickets out of the hands of the touts and scalpers. As it was, having spent ages trying to get to the "buy tickets" page to be confronted with "F*ck off if yopu've got more than one friend and/or a family" I just thought "Well b
ks to you then Billy Joe if you don't want my money..." and downloaded a copy of 21st Century Breakdown through bit torrent in an act of petty spite... :-)--
JG
I wouldn't pay over the odds to see anyone, except possibly Talking Heads if they ever reunite.
I used to go to loads of gigs and to be honest many of them go on way too long. Some of the dullest nights out ever.
Last gig I went to was Spectrum upstairs at some Brighton boozer, £6 to get in.
I used to go to loads of gigs and to be honest many of them go on way too long. Some of the dullest nights out ever.
Last gig I went to was Spectrum upstairs at some Brighton boozer, £6 to get in.
neilr said:
IMO ticket prices are too high now for music, its a total rip off. I saw the comedian Tim Minchin last night at Hammersmith Apollo (Odeon in my book) it was a packed house and the tickets were 20quid. So its financially viable for artists to do it. You wouldn't get tickets at hammersmith for a decent band for 20quid these days. To quote the movie 'Almost Famous' "the wars over...they won" Great shame really.
Tim Minchin, I would assume, does not have a huge entourage, or even any equipment to hump around, and there's only one of him. £20 to watch one bloke or £40-£50 to watch a five piece band? Both similar value for my £££si paid over £50 inc. booking fee twice over summer, once for neil young [with fleet foxes and a couple of others] and then for blur the week after [straight gig, didn't bother with the support]. both worth it as there were half a dozen acts each day, but then not exactly a great deal either seeing as i could have gone to glasto fow what i paid out on total [getting there etc.] blur were fantastic and it was money well spent.
i have paid £40 on a couple of occasions to see bob dylan but doubt i would do so again as his live performance just isn't upto scratch anymore.
in terms of value, prob. the best i've been to in recent years was the who / super furry animals/ flaming lips/ the zutons - all for £45 at harewood house.
i have paid £40 on a couple of occasions to see bob dylan but doubt i would do so again as his live performance just isn't upto scratch anymore.
in terms of value, prob. the best i've been to in recent years was the who / super furry animals/ flaming lips/ the zutons - all for £45 at harewood house.
Edited by shirt on Thursday 29th October 10:26
I've been living in Malta for a few years and nobody ever goes there so if I wanted to see anyone good I had to fly back to UK, get transport, find somewhere to stay etc. I thin kthe most I laid out was probably £300 to see Neil young last year at the Hop Farm Festival...there were some other acts on but I was not really interested...we had to stand up for hours and it rained for much of the time but I'd spend it again in a second. Shakey was immense and a great time was had by all despite the noisy Norn Ironers who seemed to find it impossible to shut the fk up!!!!
k up!!!!I don't think I'd really go beyond £50 unless I was truly desperate to see them. I've been to a variety of gigs at various prices over the last few years and I'd say that some of the ones I've paid £40-45 have been very good VFM.
Metallica at the MEN on the Death Magnetic tour springs to mind, not only was the music top notch but the production values of the show were very high and it can't have been cheap to stage.
The Red Hot Chili Peppers at Sheffield a few years back however were IMHO very poor value at that money, there was no effort from them towards making it into an experience they just turned up played their way through Stadium Arcadium plus a few classics and left. If I'd paid about £15-20 I'd probably have felt it was ok, for over £50 (inc booking fee) I felt pretty darn ripped off.
I'm seeing Green Day on Friday and IIRC that was about £40 so we'll have to see if they are worth it!
Metallica at the MEN on the Death Magnetic tour springs to mind, not only was the music top notch but the production values of the show were very high and it can't have been cheap to stage.
The Red Hot Chili Peppers at Sheffield a few years back however were IMHO very poor value at that money, there was no effort from them towards making it into an experience they just turned up played their way through Stadium Arcadium plus a few classics and left. If I'd paid about £15-20 I'd probably have felt it was ok, for over £50 (inc booking fee) I felt pretty darn ripped off.
I'm seeing Green Day on Friday and IIRC that was about £40 so we'll have to see if they are worth it!
A mate and me died when we realised we've just paid £195 to see Bon Jovi at the O2 arena in June next year. The ticket prices ended up being £65 each, plus parking and then about £50 of charges!!
The tickets this year range from £45-£200, which is crazy! we usually go and see them in places like Southampton or Wembley in the stadiums when we pay a max of £85 to be in the front 5 rows. As Bon Jovi aren't doing any stadium dates next year we don't have much choice but to pay the incredibly expensive O2 prices
The tickets this year range from £45-£200, which is crazy! we usually go and see them in places like Southampton or Wembley in the stadiums when we pay a max of £85 to be in the front 5 rows. As Bon Jovi aren't doing any stadium dates next year we don't have much choice but to pay the incredibly expensive O2 prices
Sadly, most of the bands I like seem to be the old school ones which have massive fan bases and can charge huge amounts.
All of my top 10 bands that are touring would all charge around £60 minimum.
Bon Jovi are a good example, I have seen them twice and their prices were hefty already but the prices for the latest tour take the biscuit - £200 for the better floor seats. I even heard they were charging their fanclub members £48 to book these first/early.
All of my top 10 bands that are touring would all charge around £60 minimum.
Bon Jovi are a good example, I have seen them twice and their prices were hefty already but the prices for the latest tour take the biscuit - £200 for the better floor seats. I even heard they were charging their fanclub members £48 to book these first/early.
Mojooo said:
Sadly, most of the bands I like seem to be the old school ones which have massive fan bases and can charge huge amounts.
All of my top 10 bands that are touring would all charge around £60 minimum.
Bon Jovi are a good example, I have seen them twice and their prices were hefty already but the prices for the latest tour take the biscuit - £200 for the better floor seats. I even heard they were charging their fanclub members £48 to book these first/early.
Not sure about the fan club info, as I'm still not a full memeber. the 'Gold tickets' this time were starting at £575!! for that it would be cheaper to fly to the USA and get gold tickets over thereAll of my top 10 bands that are touring would all charge around £60 minimum.
Bon Jovi are a good example, I have seen them twice and their prices were hefty already but the prices for the latest tour take the biscuit - £200 for the better floor seats. I even heard they were charging their fanclub members £48 to book these first/early.
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