Concert Ticket Prices are Going Way up!

JOEJOEJOE

PJ was a bargain at $108 (before fees)!

Gorillaz tickets are $151 before fees

Arcade Fire is $179.50 before fees

LukinFan

Everything is going up, but those prices are a little insane. 

brianlux

Those prices are ridiculous.   Adjusting for inflation, I was able to see bands like Sell Out era The Who, Jimi Hendrix, Miles Davis, The Clash, War tour U2, etc. for no more than $35 in today's money.  Music fans are getting taken for a ride.

HughFreakingDillon

I just might start getting priced out of concerts pretty soon if that's the trend. And it will be the trend, with acts having to lose 2 years or more of touring, and the insurance costs they'll have to pay are going to be outrageous. 

JOEJOEJOE

brianlux said:

Those prices are ridiculous.   Adjusting for inflation, I was able to see bands like Sell Out era The Who, Jimi Hendrix, Miles Davis, The Clash, War tour U2, etc. for no more than $35 in today's money.  Music fans are getting taken for a ride.

My first shows were in 1980....The Who was $12.50.....Punk shows with touring acts ere around $6.50

The Rolling Stones were $15 in 1981....that was viewed as an escalation since most other top acts were $12.50

tempo_n_groove

Passing on Gorillaz.  They just don't have enough music I like to warrant the price.
AF I am waiting to see prices go down or I just won't bother.
I passed on TOOL because they were so damn high...
I did buy Awolnation tix.  They are always worth the price of admission. $39.50 each.  Ummm yes please!

brianlux

JOEJOEJOE said:

brianlux said:

Those prices are ridiculous.   Adjusting for inflation, I was able to see bands like Sell Out era The Who, Jimi Hendrix, Miles Davis, The Clash, War tour U2, etc. for no more than $35 in today's money.  Music fans are getting taken for a ride.

My first shows were in 1980....The Who was $12.50.....Punk shows with touring acts ere around $6.50

The Rolling Stones were $15 in 1981....that was viewed as an escalation since most other top acts were $12.50

Those prices seem a little higher than I was paying in the 80's for top bands, but fairly close, and in today's money that would be around $40, maybe a little more, but nowhere near $100 to $180.  Music fans are being ripped off.  Because of my hearing issues, I may never go to another show, but even without that problem, I can't think of a single band or artist I would pay $100 to $180 to go see.

brianlux

tempo_n_groove said:

Passing on Gorillaz.  They just don't have enough music I like to warrant the price.
AF I am waiting to see prices go down or I just won't bother.
I passed on TOOL because they were so damn high...
I did buy Awolnation tix.  They are always worth the price of admission. $39.50 each.  Ummm yes please!

Definitely more reasonable.  I would pay that much to see Dinosaur Jr, The Dream Syndicate, or The Feelies.

Cropduster-80

On the bright side at least it’s not baseball tickets and  81 home games.

really I think I spend more anytime I go to any sporting event and it’s a lot less enjoyable vs watching on TV.  

I get how they fill the seats at concerts at whatever  price, for sports not so much 

ymalkiel

It’s not just inflation, though. These days, bands/artists make so little $ for record sales, they have to make it up somewhere. Thus, higher ticket prices, more merch, and VIP experience add-ons. 

Loujoe

I'm out

brianlux

ymalkiel said:

It’s not just inflation, though. These days, bands/artists make so little $ for record sales, they have to make it up somewhere. Thus, higher ticket prices, more merch, and VIP experience add-ons. 

Sorry, don't mean to argue, but I beg to differ.  The bands that we've been talking about here are certainly are hurting financially.  The cost to see these bigger name bands is over the top (and they're not saying much about it).
If we we were talking about lesser known great bands and artists who struggle to get by playing dives and smaller clubs (and particularly many, many jazz artists over the decades), I could see that argument.  I've seen this over and over and over-  great artists like saxophonist Steve Lacy playing a small room with folding chairs, or blues great Charlie Musselwhite or rock-blues guitarist superb Harvey Mandel or the incomparable jazz pianist Cecil Taylor, all playing smoky little dives most of their careers. 
I've seen too much to have any sympathy for these big name bands with their outrageous ticket prices.  I don't hate the bands, but I do hate the inequity.
 

Cropduster-80

brianlux said:

ymalkiel said:

It’s not just inflation, though. These days, bands/artists make so little $ for record sales, they have to make it up somewhere. Thus, higher ticket prices, more merch, and VIP experience add-ons. 

Sorry, don't mean to argue, but I beg to differ.  The bands that we've been talking about here are certainly are hurting financially.  The cost to see these bigger name bands is over the top (and they're not saying much about it).
If we we were talking about lesser known great bands and artists who struggle to get by playing dives and smaller clubs (and particularly many, many jazz artists over the decades), I could see that argument.  I've seen this over and over and over-  great artists like saxophonist Steve Lacy playing a small room with folding chairs, or blues great Charlie Musselwhite or rock-blues guitarist superb Harvey Mandel or the incomparable jazz pianist Cecil Taylor, all playing smoky little dives most of their careers. 
I've seen too much to have any sympathy for these big name bands with their outrageous ticket prices.  I don't hate the bands, but I do hate the inequity.
 

It’s consolidation of the industry absolutely.  Big acts get bigger and the rest get squeezed out. 

Kind of like tech.  Use to be hundreds of companies, now it’s Google, apple, Facebook, and Amazon.  

Same thing here, just with concert dollars 

Lifted

There's certainly a conversation to be had here, but the original post is based off false or misleading information. I've seen tickets as low as $39.95 for Arcade Fire, and Gorillaz tickets haven't even gone on sale yet. Arcade Fire has had to scale down the size of the venues they're playing....there's no way they could get away with charging $200 a ticket. 

You're looking at random secondary market prices, which probably aren't selling.

The only accurate price you gave was for Pearl Jam.

brianlux

Lifted said:

There's certainly a conversation to be had here, but the original post is based off false or misleading information. I've seen tickets as low as $39.95 for Arcade Fire, and Gorillaz tickets haven't even gone on sale yet. Arcade Fire has had to scale down the size of the venues they're playing....there's no way they could get away with charging $200 a ticket. 

You're looking at random secondary market prices, which probably aren't selling.

The only accurate price you gave was for Pearl Jam.

I have to admit, no longer being a concert goer, I am not familiar with current prices and I might have done well to fact check first. 
What I do know is this:  There was a time in the late sixties and early seventies (jeez, I'm having a hard time wording this so as not to come across as some old fucker, ) when I was making minimum wage and did not have much money to throw around, if a band like The Who or The Jimi Hendrix Experience came to town, I could scrape up the cash to go to a show.  Same with most of my friends.  We were all young and pretty much living on the cheap back then but we could go see almost any band you can name in those days.  Also, most of the shows offered a free handbill sized reproduction of the show poster and often the poster itself was free.  And most people who went to those shows were a lot like us.  This is a whole new era.

drakeheuer14

Concert prices are ridiculous. Lower bowl and floor for Carrie Underwood (to make the wife happy) at $125 a piece before fees in Atlanta? Wtf. 

And you never know if that will adjust because of dynamic pricing. I could have had better seats with a more reasonable price for Janes Addiction/Smashing Pumpkins next fall if I waited a few more hours, but of course I didn’t want to take the risk of waiting. And RHCP for this summer I could have had $35 tickets a few weeks back and now up to $50 again for same seats. It’s annoying playing this game.

Might be with the jose fellow from these boards and only go to small venue / bar shows from now on. 

tempo_n_groove

Lifted said:

There's certainly a conversation to be had here, but the original post is based off false or misleading information. I've seen tickets as low as $39.95 for Arcade Fire, and Gorillaz tickets haven't even gone on sale yet. Arcade Fire has had to scale down the size of the venues they're playing....there's no way they could get away with charging $200 a ticket. 

You're looking at random secondary market prices, which probably aren't selling.

The only accurate price you gave was for Pearl Jam.

Arcade Fire secondary and regular tix were high.  I paid $100 for great seats last time.  Same seats are 160. 

Gorillaz I had a presale code and they aren't worth $150 a ticket to see, they just aren't.

TOOL were the first post pandemic prices I saw and said NOPE to.  I say NOPE a lot now.  New normal you say?  Then my NOPE response and my money will stay with me, joe consumer.

Ticket prices have skyrocketed because of deals w Livenation and Ticketmaster, etc.  It started w exclusively signing of bands like U2 and Madonna and then all the other acts followed suit.  They want to get paid, I get it but my dollar can't stretch that far anymore.  My days of 40-50 shows a year are over...

tempo_n_groove

Oh and $35 tix for a 300 section?  No thanks.  I'd rather sit outside the venue and listen.

JeBurkhardt

Lately I have been going to see bands with reasonable ticket prices: The Black Crowes, Son Volt twice, Bob Mould and Drive By Truckers. Had tickets to Mudhoney, but life happened and couldn't make it. With the exception of the Black Crowes, all of the shows were less than $50. There are still good touring bands out there with reasonable costing tickets.

Cropduster-80

tempo_n_groove said:

Oh and $35 tix for a 300 section?  No thanks.  I'd rather sit outside the venue and listen.

Outside might be ok.

I paid 135 for DMB and the sound was so awful on the side (we were just left of the left side speaker towers) we left early as we couldn’t hear anything but a muddled mess of noise.  Heard the concert better from the parking lot so we just pulled out lawn chairs from the car and sat for an hour 

HughFreakingDillon

it's supply and demand. promoters know how much people will pay, and they set prices accordingly. I really wish this "dynamic pricing" bullshit would get some legislation against it though. that's such bullshit. it's scalping right in front of your face. plain and simple. imagine if you went to buy groceries and every time someone bought a tomato the price of the remaining tomatoes doubled. no one would stand for that. 

Zod

It's not scalping.  No one's buying a thing, then flipping it for double.  Their selling their own thing for double from the get go.  It's that they've found a way to get more money for the good they sell.

In regards to ticket prices being high. I felt this was going to happen in many industries.   Everyone was chomping at the bit for refunds when Covid went sideways, but these industries still had people to pay.  A few years of no income.  All the industries impacted by Covid need to do catchup.

HughFreakingDillon

Zod said:

It's not scalping.  No one's buying a thing, then flipping it for double.  Their selling their own thing for double from the get go.  It's that they've found a way to get more money for the good they sell.

In regards to ticket prices being high. I felt this was going to happen in many industries.   Everyone was chomping at the bit for refunds when Covid went sideways, but these industries still had people to pay.  A few years of no income.  All the industries impacted by Covid need to do catchup.

it's scalping without the middle man. they don't increase the price until they know the demand. same as scalping. but there's no risk to them, like there is to a scalper. it's criminal. 

you should have to set the price and stick with it. 

Cropduster-80

Zod said:

It's not scalping.  No one's buying a thing, then flipping it for double.  Their selling their own thing for double from the get go.  It's that they've found a way to get more money for the good they sell.

In regards to ticket prices being high. I felt this was going to happen in many industries.   Everyone was chomping at the bit for refunds when Covid went sideways, but these industries still had people to pay.  A few years of no income.  All the industries impacted by Covid need to do catchup.

IDK

its like the toll roads in my city. Prices change based on time of day (demand).  Don’t like it? Stay in the free lanes and you still get where you are going 

with concert tickets there isn’t an alternative since it’s already a monopoly.  If there were 3 major concert promoters/venue operators prices would absolutely go down naturally.

The prices aren’t the problem. The problem is there is no downward pressure on those prices.  The only time prices would go down is in a response to people not being willing to pay that price, not because of competition 

It’s not allowed to happen with airlines for that exact reason 

KICK7071

I can see my days of large venue shows coming to an end, especially when I can see a band like Black Pistol Fire in a 900 occupant capacity for $40 a ticket.  And with reasonably priced drinks!    Small venues will be the way to go!

JOEJOEJOE

Lifted said:

There's certainly a conversation to be had here, but the original post is based off false or misleading information. I've seen tickets as low as $39.95 for Arcade Fire, and Gorillaz tickets haven't even gone on sale yet. Arcade Fire has had to scale down the size of the venues they're playing....there's no way they could get away with charging $200 a ticket. 

You're looking at random secondary market prices, which probably aren't selling.

The only accurate price you gave was for Pearl Jam.

The prices I cited were from Ticketmaster for regular seats, not platinum or resale.

Check your facts.

nicknyr15

Fuck concerts honestly. I’m more concerned with stuff people need like gas, food, building materials etc…. Concerts were such a huge part of my life until covid hit. Now, most are an easy pass at the disgusting prices that are charged. 

Lifted

JOEJOEJOE said:

Lifted said:

There's certainly a conversation to be had here, but the original post is based off false or misleading information. I've seen tickets as low as $39.95 for Arcade Fire, and Gorillaz tickets haven't even gone on sale yet. Arcade Fire has had to scale down the size of the venues they're playing....there's no way they could get away with charging $200 a ticket. 

You're looking at random secondary market prices, which probably aren't selling.

The only accurate price you gave was for Pearl Jam.

The prices I cited were from Ticketmaster for regular seats, not platinum or resale.

Check your facts.

They're not my facts, just facts. I did check, because I couldn't believe Arcade Fire would be able to charge that much for tickets, and I wanted to see if it was true. It's not. Giving you the benefit of the doubt, I checked multiple shows. Only standard tickets I saw that were close to your stated price for Arcade Fire was Seattle and they were club seats. There were also seats available for that same show for a fraction of that price.

As for the Gorillaz, same deal. I checked because I was surprised by your claim. They weren't even on sale yet when you made your post. Now they are, and the most expensive standard tickets I saw were $125. I also saw tickets for under $60.

What shows were you looking at?

JOEJOEJOE

Lifted said:

JOEJOEJOE said:

Lifted said:

There's certainly a conversation to be had here, but the original post is based off false or misleading information. I've seen tickets as low as $39.95 for Arcade Fire, and Gorillaz tickets haven't even gone on sale yet. Arcade Fire has had to scale down the size of the venues they're playing....there's no way they could get away with charging $200 a ticket. 

You're looking at random secondary market prices, which probably aren't selling.

The only accurate price you gave was for Pearl Jam.

The prices I cited were from Ticketmaster for regular seats, not platinum or resale.

Check your facts.

They're not my facts, just facts. I did check, because I couldn't believe Arcade Fire would be able to charge that much for tickets, and I wanted to see if it was true. It's not. Giving you the benefit of the doubt, I checked multiple shows. Only standard tickets I saw that were close to your stated price for Arcade Fire was Seattle and they were club seats. There were also seats available for that same show for a fraction of that price.

As for the Gorillaz, same deal. I checked because I was surprised by your claim. They weren't even on sale yet when you made your post. Now they are, and the most expensive standard tickets I saw were $125. I also saw tickets for under $60.

What shows were you looking at?

The prices I showed were based on the AF and Gorillaz shows at the Forum in Los Angeles for lower level seats.

Merkin Baller

Paid $180 to see Tool which was absurd, but I was desperate to see them again coming out of the pandemic. I won't be doing that too often though. 

There are some good tix to be had at good prices, I just got a ticket for Sunny Day Real Estate for $48 & change... but they do seem few & far between. 

The big acts / big venues are definitely getting out of control. 

I chock it up to the lost years / revenue during covid (for ALL parties concerned, band, venue etc) insurance in the event shows have to be canceled, and yes, inflation among other things. 

pledgeagrievance

Tool was a quick easy No at those prices. And Arcade Fire was an easy no, I’ll wait to see if prices come down.