European Tour Sales = Desaster

BloodMeridian80

RatherStarved said:

drfox said:

Zen23 said:

Just so there are no misunderstandings. I am not providing the following statistics to make fun of the European sales figures. I go to some of these concerts myself, or plan to. I would therefore be delighted if they were sold out. On the other hand, I think it's good that the fans have sent out a signal that a point has been reached that they can no longer tolerate. A price point at which such Pearl Jam concerts no longer sell out within hours or even minutes. Instead, after a month of presale, it looks like this:

Manchester
Around 1,500 seats available plus an unknown number of standing tickets

London
Around 10,000 seats available plus an unknown number of standing tickets and areas that appear to have been removed from sale 

Berlin 1
Around 6,000 seats available

Berlin 2
Around 7,000 seats available

Barcelona 1
Around 3,500 seats available plus an unknown number of standing tickets and areas that appear to have been removed from sale 

Barcelona 2
Around 7,000 seats available plus an unknown number of standing tickets and areas that appear to have been removed from sale 

All figures are estimates. Not accurate to the last blue pop Ticketmaster dot. But not imprecisely rough either. A healthy extrapolated average of accuracy.

They should have done Manchester 2 or Dublin 2 instead of Berlin 2 or Barcelona 2 (plus Manchester and Dublin are larger venue). Bet they are kicking themselves 

I’ll be in Barcelona - going to be strange if that amount remain unsold 

They are not kicking themselves.  Almost definitely they have a guaranteed fee for each show.  The promoter is the one who needs to sell tickets to afford the fee and hopefully make a profit.  And I would just say that selling 51% of a venue at 160 Pounds is more ticket revenue than selling 100% of the venue at 80 Pounds.  Promoters want to maximize revenue.  Not necessarily volume of sales.  

Yep, this is what promoters and TM prefer these days. If I show sells out right away, they made a mistake. Not saying I like it, but this is their approach now. Not sure constant grousing will do anything but upset yourself. Give an update on unsold tickets day off and/or after the show.

Zen23

SHZA said:

Zen23 said:

Just so there are no misunderstandings. I am not providing the following statistics to make fun of the European sales figures. I go to some of these concerts myself, or plan to. I would therefore be delighted if they were sold out. On the other hand, I think it's good that the fans have sent out a signal that a point has been reached that they can no longer tolerate. A price point at which such Pearl Jam concerts no longer sell out within hours or even minutes. Instead, after a month of presale, it looks like this:

Manchester
Around 1,500 seats available plus an unknown number of standing tickets

London
Around 10,000 seats available plus an unknown number of standing tickets and areas that appear to have been removed from sale 

Berlin 1
Around 6,000 seats available

Berlin 2
Around 7,000 seats available

Barcelona 1
Around 3,500 seats available plus an unknown number of standing tickets and areas that appear to have been removed from sale 

Barcelona 2
Around 7,000 seats available plus an unknown number of standing tickets and areas that appear to have been removed from sale 

All figures are estimates. Not accurate to the last blue Ticketmaster dot. But not imprecisely rough either. A healthy extrapolated average of accuracy.

I take it the omission means Dublin sold out 

No. There are PJ Premium Tickets left. For 225 euros. But since there are no seats, what are you supposed to count?

RatherStarved

Zen23 said:

SHZA said:

Zen23 said:

Just so there are no misunderstandings. I am not providing the following statistics to make fun of the European sales figures. I go to some of these concerts myself, or plan to. I would therefore be delighted if they were sold out. On the other hand, I think it's good that the fans have sent out a signal that a point has been reached that they can no longer tolerate. A price point at which such Pearl Jam concerts no longer sell out within hours or even minutes. Instead, after a month of presale, it looks like this:

Manchester
Around 1,500 seats available plus an unknown number of standing tickets

London
Around 10,000 seats available plus an unknown number of standing tickets and areas that appear to have been removed from sale 

Berlin 1
Around 6,000 seats available

Berlin 2
Around 7,000 seats available

Barcelona 1
Around 3,500 seats available plus an unknown number of standing tickets and areas that appear to have been removed from sale 

Barcelona 2
Around 7,000 seats available plus an unknown number of standing tickets and areas that appear to have been removed from sale 

All figures are estimates. Not accurate to the last blue Ticketmaster dot. But not imprecisely rough either. A healthy extrapolated average of accuracy.

I take it the omission means Dublin sold out 

No. There are PJ Premium Tickets left. For 225 euros. But since there are no seats, what are you supposed to count?

Blades of grass 

Kearn5y

Zen23 said:

SHZA said:

Zen23 said:

Just so there are no misunderstandings. I am not providing the following statistics to make fun of the European sales figures. I go to some of these concerts myself, or plan to. I would therefore be delighted if they were sold out. On the other hand, I think it's good that the fans have sent out a signal that a point has been reached that they can no longer tolerate. A price point at which such Pearl Jam concerts no longer sell out within hours or even minutes. Instead, after a month of presale, it looks like this:

Manchester
Around 1,500 seats available plus an unknown number of standing tickets

London
Around 10,000 seats available plus an unknown number of standing tickets and areas that appear to have been removed from sale 

Berlin 1
Around 6,000 seats available

Berlin 2
Around 7,000 seats available

Barcelona 1
Around 3,500 seats available plus an unknown number of standing tickets and areas that appear to have been removed from sale 

Barcelona 2
Around 7,000 seats available plus an unknown number of standing tickets and areas that appear to have been removed from sale 

All figures are estimates. Not accurate to the last blue Ticketmaster dot. But not imprecisely rough either. A healthy extrapolated average of accuracy.

I take it the omission means Dublin sold out 

No. There are PJ Premium Tickets left. For 225 euros. But since there are no seats, what are you supposed to count?

Premium are only available for gold circle which means they sold over 36000 tickets minimum which is way more than the rest. Should be noted that Dublin was the only venue which had 2 ticket prices which sort of proves that this was the issue. 

ilockyer

Lerxst1992 said:

RatherStarved said:

drfox said:

Zen23 said:

Just so there are no misunderstandings. I am not providing the following statistics to make fun of the European sales figures. I go to some of these concerts myself, or plan to. I would therefore be delighted if they were sold out. On the other hand, I think it's good that the fans have sent out a signal that a point has been reached that they can no longer tolerate. A price point at which such Pearl Jam concerts no longer sell out within hours or even minutes. Instead, after a month of presale, it looks like this:

Manchester
Around 1,500 seats available plus an unknown number of standing tickets

London
Around 10,000 seats available plus an unknown number of standing tickets and areas that appear to have been removed from sale 

Berlin 1
Around 6,000 seats available

Berlin 2
Around 7,000 seats available

Barcelona 1
Around 3,500 seats available plus an unknown number of standing tickets and areas that appear to have been removed from sale 

Barcelona 2
Around 7,000 seats available plus an unknown number of standing tickets and areas that appear to have been removed from sale 

All figures are estimates. Not accurate to the last blue pop Ticketmaster dot. But not imprecisely rough either. A healthy extrapolated average of accuracy.

They should have done Manchester 2 or Dublin 2 instead of Berlin 2 or Barcelona 2 (plus Manchester and Dublin are larger venue). Bet they are kicking themselves 

I’ll be in Barcelona - going to be strange if that amount remain unsold 

They are not kicking themselves.  Almost definitely they have a guaranteed fee for each show.  The promoter is the one who needs to sell tickets to afford the fee and hopefully make a profit.  And I would just say that selling 51% of a venue at 160 Pounds is more ticket revenue than selling 100% of the venue at 80 Pounds.  Promoters want to maximize revenue.  Not necessarily volume of sales.  

No worries , they’ll just add some more $2000 MSG seats to help subsidize the euro tour.  if it’s a different promoter in Euro, they’ve been screwed royally by the deciders of how to allocate and price shows. Will they cut back on future euro tours and address the everehelming east coast US demand, no way, they’ll just get more festivals to subsidize future euro tours.

There's a lot less festivals than normal on this tour. It's not uncommon for there to be 4-6 of those. Pinkpop/Werchter/Mad Cool/NOS Alive have been pretty much standard, with others added in such as Open'er/Main Square/Lollapalooza (Paris & Stockholm last time?). 

Going to be interesting to see what happens over the next couple of months 'til the shows. 

JimFletcherPearlJam

Well, the Germany thing isn't a big surprise. I mean, they were really heavily into David Hasselhoff (as a singer) while I was living there (Germany) for four years during the first half of the 1990s. 

JimFletcherPearlJam

Based on what I can tell, it seems like the countries where Pearl Jam is currently most popular (on a per capita basis) are Australia and Portugal. Of course, they're still quite popular and influential in the United States and Canada too. 

Zen23

JimFletcherPearlJam said:

Well, the Germany thing isn't a big surprise. I mean, they were really heavily into David Hasselhoff (as a singer) while I was living there (Germany) for four years during the first half of the 1990s. 

Who is "they"?! 😄

Let's put it this way. It was a very lucky coincidence that his song "Looking for Freedom" coincided with the fall of the Berlin Wall.

But what does David Hasselhoff have to do with Pearl Jam?

Lerxst1992

Zen23 said:

Completely unimaginable here in Europe. At these prices, they can forget about the Waldbühne Berlin or the Co op Live Arena in Manchester. A small pub would have enough capacity for the demand.

If you can sell a product for $5 or $10, which would most enterprises choose? And it costs more to sell in the $5 region? Only in the bizarro world of PJ economics does a desaster like this occur.

 They could clearly sell out a NE US 20 show tour for $150 per ticket above what they can currently get in Europe. As much as this forum likes to hate on TM and promoters, someone’s wanderlust for euro travel is costing promoters and the PJ touring machine tens of millions of dollars, plural. And hurting fans who have waited ten years  to see them near their hometowns.

vedpunk

I mean they could sell way more tickets to a Southeast US Tour of Atlanta, Nashville,  Carolina, Miami, Tampa, etc but they choose not to for some reason. 

mcgruff10

RatherStarved said:

drfox said:

Zen23 said:

Just so there are no misunderstandings. I am not providing the following statistics to make fun of the European sales figures. I go to some of these concerts myself, or plan to. I would therefore be delighted if they were sold out. On the other hand, I think it's good that the fans have sent out a signal that a point has been reached that they can no longer tolerate. A price point at which such Pearl Jam concerts no longer sell out within hours or even minutes. Instead, after a month of presale, it looks like this:

Manchester
Around 1,500 seats available plus an unknown number of standing tickets

London
Around 10,000 seats available plus an unknown number of standing tickets and areas that appear to have been removed from sale 

Berlin 1
Around 6,000 seats available

Berlin 2
Around 7,000 seats available

Barcelona 1
Around 3,500 seats available plus an unknown number of standing tickets and areas that appear to have been removed from sale 

Barcelona 2
Around 7,000 seats available plus an unknown number of standing tickets and areas that appear to have been removed from sale 

All figures are estimates. Not accurate to the last blue pop Ticketmaster dot. But not imprecisely rough either. A healthy extrapolated average of accuracy.

They should have done Manchester 2 or Dublin 2 instead of Berlin 2 or Barcelona 2 (plus Manchester and Dublin are larger venue). Bet they are kicking themselves 

I’ll be in Barcelona - going to be strange if that amount remain unsold 

They are not kicking themselves.  Almost definitely they have a guaranteed fee for each show.  The promoter is the one who needs to sell tickets to afford the fee and hopefully make a profit.  And I would just say that selling 51% of a venue at 160 Pounds is more ticket revenue than selling 100% of the venue at 80 Pounds.  Promoters want to maximize revenue.  Not necessarily volume of sales.  

Selling 51% of the venue at 160 pounds as compared to 100% of the venue at 80 pounds is practically the same.  20,000 venue selling out times 80 a ticket equals 1.6 million.  Selling 51% of the venue would be 10,200 tickets and that would equal $1,632,000.

kramerica4

mcgruff10 said:

RatherStarved said:

drfox said:

Zen23 said:

Just so there are no misunderstandings. I am not providing the following statistics to make fun of the European sales figures. I go to some of these concerts myself, or plan to. I would therefore be delighted if they were sold out. On the other hand, I think it's good that the fans have sent out a signal that a point has been reached that they can no longer tolerate. A price point at which such Pearl Jam concerts no longer sell out within hours or even minutes. Instead, after a month of presale, it looks like this:

Manchester
Around 1,500 seats available plus an unknown number of standing tickets

London
Around 10,000 seats available plus an unknown number of standing tickets and areas that appear to have been removed from sale 

Berlin 1
Around 6,000 seats available

Berlin 2
Around 7,000 seats available

Barcelona 1
Around 3,500 seats available plus an unknown number of standing tickets and areas that appear to have been removed from sale 

Barcelona 2
Around 7,000 seats available plus an unknown number of standing tickets and areas that appear to have been removed from sale 

All figures are estimates. Not accurate to the last blue pop Ticketmaster dot. But not imprecisely rough either. A healthy extrapolated average of accuracy.

They should have done Manchester 2 or Dublin 2 instead of Berlin 2 or Barcelona 2 (plus Manchester and Dublin are larger venue). Bet they are kicking themselves 

I’ll be in Barcelona - going to be strange if that amount remain unsold 

They are not kicking themselves.  Almost definitely they have a guaranteed fee for each show.  The promoter is the one who needs to sell tickets to afford the fee and hopefully make a profit.  And I would just say that selling 51% of a venue at 160 Pounds is more ticket revenue than selling 100% of the venue at 80 Pounds.  Promoters want to maximize revenue.  Not necessarily volume of sales.  

Selling 51% of the venue at 160 pounds as compared to 100% of the venue at 80 pounds is practically the same.  20,000 venue selling out times 80 a ticket equals 1.6 million.  Selling 51% of the venue would be 10,200 tickets and that would equal $1,632,000.

Even if the total ticket gross is the same, a sold out venue is much more lucrative for the band than a 50% sold venue.
In a sold out venue, there are double the people who can buy the merchandise which is a huge number each night for Pearl Jam.

RatherStarved

I know people spend on food and drink and merch.  I’m just illustrating that the promoter’s goal is to maximize revenue, not sales.  The sweet spot is probably in the middle of the two bookends - which doesn’t mean a sellout necessarily.  

MarcvH

I remain very curious about the long-term effect of this sales system on both the image of the band and the willingness of the fans to buy (multiple) tickets in the future. 

Personally, I already have a completely different anticipation for the concert than usual, now that I'm going alone because of the ticket price. Sharing the fun with friends was half the experience! What does that do to my enthusiasm for the next tour? 

What I'm trying to say is that the system may be financially attractive for this tour itself, but if there is discomfort for a large part of the target group, does that make it an economically sensible choice for the long term?

JimFletcherPearlJam

vedpunk said:

I mean they could sell way more tickets to a Southeast US Tour of Atlanta, Nashville,  Carolina, Miami, Tampa, etc but they choose not to for some reason. 

Yeah, as someone who lives in deep south Texas, I'm waiting for Pearl Jam to return to Jazzfest in New Orleans. After seeing them this summer in Dublin, followed by Jazzfest at some point in the not-too-distant future, I'll be perfectly satisfied. 🥑 

JimFletcherPearlJam

Zen23 said:

JimFletcherPearlJam said:

Well, the Germany thing isn't a big surprise. I mean, they were really heavily into David Hasselhoff (as a singer) while I was living there (Germany) for four years during the first half of the 1990s. 

Who is "they"?! 😄

Let's put it this way. It was a very lucky coincidence that his song "Looking for Freedom" coincided with the fall of the Berlin Wall.

But what does David Hasselhoff have to do with Pearl Jam?



Reply:
Okay buddy, if you really want to know, then here it is. When my Army buddies and I were buying Ten, Versus, and Vitalogy, and listening to them non-stop for years, most of the Germans we knew were largely enamored with David Hasselhoff (as a singer). They simply didn't seem to care about Pearl Jam too much. However, you don't have to take my word for it -- just check out the link below (or numerous other similar articles) for verification and elaboration purposes. It's hilarious to think about this phenomenon once again, and it's difficult to take such people very seriously! 

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/why-baywatch-star-david-hasselhoff-is-big-germany-1006554/

BloodMeridian80

Kind of a rude take. Maybe something’s being lost in translation but the Hoff take seems completely irrelevant.

FBech

Evebtually the shows will be sold out in Europe, I hope they do different with the prices next time

Zen23

BloodMeridian80 said:

Kind of a rude take. Maybe something’s being lost in translation but the Hoff take seems completely irrelevant.

Exactly. Then there's the "Okay Buddy" speech followed by a lecture. You switch off after the second word. Well. Greetings from Germany from someone who went along with the Hoff hype. I still don't understand the connection between Pearl Jam and David Hasselhoff. And what that has to do with the current tour. 

SHZA

Zen23 said:

BloodMeridian80 said:

Kind of a rude take. Maybe something’s being lost in translation but the Hoff take seems completely irrelevant.

Exactly. Then there's the "Okay Buddy" speech followed by a lecture. You switch off after the second word. Well. Greetings from Germany from someone who went along with the Hoff hype. I still don't understand the connection between Pearl Jam and David Hasselhoff. And what that has to do with the current tour. 

He's saying the Hoff craze is proof that the entire country has bad musical taste, which explains the poor sales for Pearl Jam. Doesn't make much sense, but that's his apparent theory.