Been wondering what Live Nation’s gargantuan "360 deals" with artists like Madonna and Jay-Z will mean for music fans? Well, we just got our first taste: stomach-turning ticket prices. Live Nation has just launched its own in-house ticketing service and, like the evil Ticketmaster, is tacking on a massive double-digit service charge. Tickets for the Pretenders’ show at New York’s Roseland Ballroom on Jan, 31, for example, are sold for $49.50 with a $13.50 "ticket charge" added by Live Nation. $13.50! (Ticketmaster tacks a whopping $15 charge onto $35 tickets to the Pretenders show in Philly, by the way.)
Ticket prices in general are just out-of-control, and there’s plenty of blame to go around. Need more evidence? Motley Crue playing Atlantic City: $75. The Killers playing Madison Square Garden: $54.25. Lil Wayne at Kansas City’s Sprint Center: $44.75 – $130.75. Pop music (that’s "pop" as in "popular," as in "for the masses," not the elite) has become as expensive as Broadway and the symphony. You’d think all this nonsense would have fans flipping the bird to Live Nation, Ticketmaster and the bands they pimp. Mind bogglingly, that isn’t the case. Although the public bought 3 percent fewer tickets last year, revenue from those tickets was actually up almost 8 percent, according to this report, which means plenty of people are paying these outrageous prices. Wealthy people, anyway. People who haven’t lost their jobs. It’s a simple case of supply and demand, I suppose, and as long as the "more money/fewer tickets sold" model keeps increasing revenue, Live Nation and Ticketmaster will keep jacking up the prices until they find the sweet spot.
Anyone else fed up with climbing ticket prices and gagging on Live Nation’s entering the game with these huge service charges? Has the rising price of tickets caused you to see less live music? What can we do to stop this madness?
I totally agree. Prices are completely out of hand and I thought the whole point of Live Nation branching out was to do away with service charges. How are people supposed to afford these shows? Only people with a ton of disposable income are wanted at these shows? And even when a ticket price is listed at $25 you still wind up paying $40 after all the fees.
But, your question remains, what can we do about it?
Yes! Your comment about the blame also falling to bands is right on.
Between the cost of cds, show tickets, etc…the industry wonders why Napster was so popular back in the day. I was looking for to seeing Motley Crue a year or so ago…until I saw the general admission lawn seating price. $55 for sitting on the ground is unacceptable.
Oh yeah, it pisses me off! Ticketmaster has its own ticket gouging service now. Within 5 minutes of Phish tickets selling out on ticketmaster that had them on “tickets now”(owned by ticketmaster) for a 300% markup. Can someone say conflict of interest? I’m surprised more artist aren’t speaking out about this. Where’s Eddie Vedder outrage? I’m just a poor dirty hippie, I can’t afford those prices.
Yeah, usually I don’t go to a concert thanks to the cost of tickets. It’s sad that a fan can’t get the chance at decent tickets due to pricing. The tickets for the Britney concert proves that – $115 or something for SEATS! And then the $250+ for the floor. No thanks. Some concerts are reasonably priced, such as Jewel or Alanis, and those I attend.
The symphony, at least in my town, is far cheaper. $175 for Elton John & Billy Joel? $125 for the Eagles? And that’s before “charges” and parking. It’s insanity.
It’s not just concerts, either. I recently bought tix to take the kids to Disney on Ice and still paid twenty some dollars in service charges. Feed the greed, I guess.
This isn’t going to change unless it has to – it’s a business model, let’s remember, it’s about money. If there’s one good thing to come out of the recession, it will be that this model can’t be sustained for too long. We talk about the recession not affecting things like this, but let’s remember that on the whole, we’re yet to really feel the recession. It’s going to be a loooong year, where we’ll realise how rather fortunate we were during this time when we started whinging without really feeling it. You’ll see the prices drop, once people finally start having to make financial changes to their lives. So it’s one good thing to come out of this, at least, because without the recession, this would be the future of the music industry who are looking to recoup from what downloading has done to sales of actual music.
i refuse to pander to this blatant obscenity and insult.. i will not go to concerts in the future if i have to sell a vital organ to afford the event…
You think that’s bad – tickets for Robin Williams – that’s right Robin Williams were $250 in Atlantic City. That was the cheapest ticket price. Are you freakin kidding me?!?
What can be done? Stop buying the damn tickets. If they don’t sell, prices come down. If you bought tickets at outrageous prices, then they were worth that much to you. If they weren’t, you wouldn’t have bought them. There are still cheap(er) tickets to be had for great live bands, so it’s your own choice to be shelling out the big bucks to see watch a big video of your artist.
IDK…I spent boatloads on music this year. Tickets & travel/board for out of town shows. Totally worth every penny to me.
What’s the difference between this and the money people pay to go to sporting events – and those are less rare!!
But these are huge spectacle extravaganzas, not musicians playing music; and priced accordingly.
If it is a Madonna ticket, the price will never be outrageous. For all other tickets, I agree! Madonna is soooo adorable! She deserves all!
Greedy performers and near monopoly on ticket sales for large to medium venues (livenation/ticketmaster)equals higher and higher prices.