Home› The Porch

“Price of admission”: The battle over concert tickets.

StardogChamp79StardogChamp79 Posts: 1,079
in The Porch
Why are concert tickets so expensive and so frustratingly hard to get? Brook Silva-Braga spent a year talking to artists, fans, scalpers, and executives from Ticketmaster and StubHub in search of answers.

Love the transparency in this!
Alpine Valley Music Theatre East Troy, Wisconsin (September 03, 2011); Alpine Valley Music Theatre East Troy, Wisconsin (September 04, 2011); Deluna Fest Pensacola, FL (September 21, 2012); Wrigley Field (July 19, 2013); Milwaukee, WI (October 20, 2014); Wrigley Field I (August 20, 2016); Wrigley Field II (August 22, 2016); Home Shows Seattle Night 1 (August 08, 2018), Home Shows Seattle Night 2 (August 10, 2018), Apollo Theater (September 10, 2022), Madison Square Garden (September 11, 2022), Bourbon & Beyond Louisville (September 17th, 2022). 

Comments

  • ChrrieChrrie Posts: 337
    Love to see more things like this, but had to chuckle when they got to the part about fan to fan tickets. I wish someone would tell the Something Corporate dude and CBS that fan to fan isn’t working like they think it is. 

    I’d also love to see more about the cost of touring and ticket price breakdown. SoCo gets about 1/6th or so of the cost of each ticket and then has to split that amongst themselves and pay for touring expenses on top of it amounting to what, like $7k per member per show if I’m remembering the video correctly. I bet it would be pretty eye opening to people if we could somehow know the bottom line for each of the guys from our $192 tickets. 
  • DM282158DM282158 Beverly, MA Posts: 606
    Great report. Thanks for sharing! 
    Boston '06
    Mansfield '08
    Hartford '10
    Worcester, Hartford '13
    Global Citizen, NY '15
  • Get_RightGet_Right Posts: 13,744
    That was a good piece, but it misses the heart of the matter. Ticketmaster controlling all the tickets and not making them all available to the public. You have not been able to get a front row seat since 1985. Even if you slept out for three days. Prices are going up and artists want to secure as much money as possible. I cannot blame an artist, even Pearl Jam, for getting fair market value for their tickets. It is the restraint of trade and the manipulation of market value that is the problem. Textbook monopoly. And there is no discussion about how ticketmaster is trying to shut out ticket brokers so they can realize the revenue. The whole thing is a joke in its current state. The only saving grace is that we can still get 10C tix, but the prices are higher and the seats are not as good.
  • JD87070JD87070 Grand Blanc, MI Posts: 301
    Get_Right said:
    That was a good piece, but it misses the heart of the matter. Ticketmaster controlling all the tickets and not making them all available to the public. You have not been able to get a front row seat since 1985. Even if you slept out for three days. Prices are going up and artists want to secure as much money as possible. I cannot blame an artist, even Pearl Jam, for getting fair market value for their tickets. It is the restraint of trade and the manipulation of market value that is the problem. Textbook monopoly. And there is no discussion about how ticketmaster is trying to shut out ticket brokers so they can realize the revenue. The whole thing is a joke in its current state. The only saving grace is that we can still get 10C tix, but the prices are higher and the seats are not as good.
    I get what you’re saying, and it does have that affect for sure, but at the same time i bet TM’s argument would be that by doing that they are keeping brokers from getting their hands on those tickets, at the initial on-sale at least.
    This year for several shows (not PJ) i’m trying a new strategy, instead of getting tickets like i usually do, i’m holding off and going to try for tickets at the drop a week or a few days before the shows. I’ve had some good luck in the past doing that occasionally-last fall i had a pair for Billy Strings at Pine Knob at on-sale that were face value but halfway up the pavilion and off to the side (best non-Official Platinum available), then the morning of the show i got 3rd row behind the pit dead center for face value in the ticket drop. And for Neil Young at PK last year same thing, i had gotten lawn with some friends in the presale, then the day before the show got Pit for face value (and the face value actually changed from day before to day of, i paid $150 for mine and the next day they were listed as $200). For Neil i gave my lawn ticket to another friend so got what i paid out of it, but for Billy Strings i took a loss, was able to resell the tickets but for less than i had paid for them. So this year i’m resisting the initial buy (unless the tickets are good and for face of course, i never buy dynamic priced ones), and trying for drops. I might miss some shows with this strategy, and for the shows i’m doing it for i’m ok with that.
Sign In or Register to comment.